Record profit for farmer-owned GrainCo

Farmer-owned GrainCo achieved record results in the year to 30 June 2022, turning in a pre-tax profit of £5.6m on a turnover of £214m.

This was a massive rise compared with the previous year’s figure of £385,000.

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This, in turn, had been heavily reduced by the co-op having to write off £4.53m as a stock loss as a result of the failure of grain trader and storage company Alexander Inglis & Son, where GrainCo had commodities to that value stored.

Pre-tax profit at the Tyneside business in 2021 was almost £2.1m.

The co-op has paid its members a total of £500,000 in ordinary dividends for the 2022 year, whereas in 2021 it paid none.

The strategic report for 2022 said that the 2021-22 grain marketing year was one of the most volatile and challenging in the history of the business, with the London futures market trading within a £218 range.  

Other challenges had included haulage costs and the continued shortage of lorry drivers as a result of the Covid pandemic.

GrainCo is the largest farmer-owned business in the north of England and Scotland, with net assets in the accounts for the year to 30 June 2022 standing at just over £24.6m, up from £20.6m in the previous year.

While its main activities are marketing and trading grain, it also produces seed and is involved in drying and logistics, with a growing import business.

It has a division that supplies biomass throughout the UK, mainly in the form of wood pellets, and of which it took 100% ownership in its 2021-22 accounting year.