Over £10m of profit at NI pig company

NI pig business, Dartan Hall Holdings Ltd., has returned a significant profit for the year ending 30 September 2023.

Owned by Co Armagh brothers Jim and Mark Wright, the company has pig production units across Britain and Ireland. It also operates its own feed mill and an anerobic digestion facility outside Killylea.

The main subsidiary within the Dartan Hall Holdings group of companies is JMW Farms Ltd, and in the last financial year it recorded a turnover of £96m.

Overall, Dartan Hall Holdings saw turnover increase by 39% to stand at £129.5m, with operating profit at £10.56m, which compares to a loss of £4.23m in the previous year. Operating profit margin in the 12 months to 30 September 2023 was a very healthy 8.1%.

In the report to accompany the accounts, the directors of Dartan Hall Holdings said the improved profitability in the last year was mainly due to an increase in the price of pigs, coupled with a reduction in feed costs.

The company has 238 employees and a very strong asset base, with net assets increasing from £93m to stand at £122.6m in the 12 months to 30 September 2023.

Since the end of the financial year, Dartan Holdings continues to expand, with two acquisitions from Irish businessman, Billy Costello and family. Those purchases involve Belmont Farms Ltd, a NI registered pig operation with a business address in Leicestershire and Green Generation UK Ltd, which runs an anerobic digestor on the same site.

An Irish subsidiary of Dartan Hall Holdings has also acquired Kilrue Milling Ltd, which owns 100% of the shares in Gort Na Mac Farm Ltd, a pig producer in the Republic of Ireland.

Processing

While higher pig prices have helped producers return to profit, the margins in processing remain tight. In its latest accounts to 25 March 2023, Canswick Country Foods in Ballymena saw operating profits fall from £6.9m to £3.1m, despite turnover increasing from £116.3m to £138.8m. Operating profit margin in the last financial year was 2.2%.

The controlling party of the Ballymena business is global food processing giant Cranswick plc.

The largest pig processor in NI is the Karro Food operation in Cookstown, with the company also slaughtering pigs at Malton in north Yorkshire. In total, it processes around 50,000 pigs each week, over half of which are understood to be slaughtered in NI.

In its latest accounts for the year ending 25 March 2023, Karro Food recorded an operating loss of £3.8m, having posted an operating loss of £8.6m in the previous year. However, it did make a £30.7m profit in the 2020-2021 financial year.