Larry Goodman’s ABP Foods Unlimited Company does not publish annual accounts, but the processor is obliged to publish an auditor’s report confirming that the accounts have been prepared correctly.

The auditor’s report for the financial year ending in March 2024, which was made available on the companies registration office website this morning, contained a word which we have not seen in such a document from ABP before.

The auditor stated that the accounts for the year, in their opinion “give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities and financial position of the company as at 31 March 2024 and of its loss for the year then ended”.

While we cannot quantify the size or cause of it, this statement means that ABP made a loss in the year.

We looked back at previous statements to see if the word “loss” has appeared before and going back as far as 2015 we see the word “profit” appear seven times and “result” appear once.

Previous statement

The financial year ended March 2024 was also the one which saw Larry Goodman step down from his position as director of ABP Foods.

Previous statement of company accounts, as presented in the auditor’s report below: (emphasis added by Irish Farmers Journal)

2015: In our opinion the financial statements: give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities and financial position of the group and company as at 27 December 2015 and of the group's profit for the period then ended;

2016: In our opinion the financial statements: give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities and financial position of the group as at 30 December 2016 and of its profit for the year then ended;

2017: In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements: give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities and financial position of the group as at 30 December 2017 and of its profit for the year then ended;

2018: In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements: give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities and financial position of the group as at 30 December 2018 and of its profit for the year then ended;

2019: In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements: give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities and financial position of the company as at 30 December 2019 and of its result for the year then ended;

2021: In our opinion: the financial statements give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities and financial position of the company as at 4 April 2021 and of its profit for the period then ended;

2022: In our opinion: the financial statements give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities and financial position of the company as at 3 April 2022 and of its profit for the year then ended;

2023: In our opinion: the financial statements give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities and financial position of the company as at 2 April 2023 and of its profit for the year then ended.

ABP statement

In response to this article a spokesperson for ABP said:

"We note the article in the Irish Farmers Journal of 20 of February referring to ABP Foods Unlimited Company, an insignificant and non trading entity of the ABP Food Group, used for internal administration purposes.

"This entity has no bearing on the day to day operations of the ABP Food Group. Across the 70-year history of ABP an annual loss has been recorded on just one occasion, in 1990, as a result of the withdrawal of Export Credit Insurance, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War.

"ABP is the largest route to market for Irish beef and lamb from Irish farmers. ABP pioneered “Pay on the Day” for farmers across Europe and maintains a very strong, industry leading and highly liquid balance sheet and will do so for many years into the future.”

This article was updated on 5 March 2025.