Annual report

2013 sales rise 7% for Mexico's Grupo Lala

The company cites a higher value-added product mix, new products and brands, volume growth and price increases.

Mexico's Grupo Lala reported that 2013 net sales increased by 7% to 43,155.9 million pesos, ($3.2 billion) as compared with 40,344.9 million pesos for the same period of 2012. The dairy processor attributed the growth mainly to a higher value-added product mix, to non-organic growth as a result of new products and brands in the portfolio, to volume growth and to the company´s price increase strategy. Lala has operations in México and Guatemala.

Full year 2013 gross profit increased by 1,338.2 million pesos to 15,547.8 million pesos, with 36.0% in gross margin, as compared with the 35.2% reported in 2012. The 0.8 percentage point improvement in gross margin is attributed to the appreciation of the peso against the dollar over the last twelve months, as well as to the positive effect from product mix and to the price increase strategy implemented during the fourth quarter of 2013. This improvement was partially offset by the increased cost of some input variables, and to a lesser extent, to the discount strategies implemented during the year.

Lala's CEO Arquimedes Celis said "2013 was an excellent year for our company; we went public and thereby reaffirmed our shareholder commitment through one of the most successful IPOs in industry history. It was also an important year as far as achievements and challenges, which reaffirmed the strength of our business model, as consumers' preference for Lala products helped us achieve growth levels above the market average. Our shareholders' support and confidence were also decisive factors in achieving these goals."

He continued, "We believe that continued execution of our successful business model will again allow us to achieve our 2014 goals of strong growth and, as a result, returns for our shareholders."

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Source: PR Newswire