Alliance takes hit

Alliance Group says it took the hit for farmer-shareholders by continuing to buy lambs and ewes through the difficult months of the trading year. As the biggest sheep meat processor, Alliance was most exposed to the poor markets and that showed up in the earnings results for the year ending September 30, with the operating profit down 31% to $9.19 million, and the pre-tax and after-tax profits down by 25% on a year earlier. Pre-tax earnings were $7.86m, down from $10.57m, and the after-tax figure was $4.62m, down from $6.2m. This was from revenues of $1.4987 billion, up from $1.459b.