Rainbow Chicken has seen a massive rise in earnings due to an ease in load shedding but warns that avian influenza (bird flu) is still a material risk to the group, adding that the government has to do more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rainbow is a fully integrated broiler producer that plays a major role in the national supply of chicken. It processes, distributes and markets fresh, frozen, value-added, and further-processed chicken products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rainbow\u2019s Chicken Division produces and markets products under the well-known Rainbow, Simply Chicken, and Farmer Brown brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rainbow was listed on the Main Board of the JSE on 26 June 2024 and unbundled from RCL Foods on 1 July 2024, making its results for the six months ended December 2024 its first set of interim results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group’s publicly available results were also very strong, with revenue from operations increasing by 8.9% to R7.9 billion. However, it was the earnings figures that showed massive growth for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation and impairments (EBITDA) went up 119.0% to R581.1 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earnings per share (EPS) is 35.58 cents, up 1,407.6%, and headline earnings per share (HEPS) of 35.64 cents, up 1,348.8%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The financial performance was driven by consistent operational improvements, improved agricultural performance, enhanced efficiencies and a disciplined focus on cost management, together with lower commodity pricing relative to the comparative period.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Further, the reduction in costs related to energy load shedding and Avian Influenza delivered a combined positive benefit to the Company in the current period.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group, however, warned that bird flu remains a risk to the business, with it taking notable steps to manage this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apart from culling a substantial number of breeder birds in the prior year, Rainbow extended the breeder flocks and imported eggs to mitigate the risk of chicken shortages in the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, the company relocated its Midrand breeding facility to a less densely populated region closer to Rustenburg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The geographical separation of the facilities has helped to reduce the bird flu risk to the business. Biosecurity enhancements have also reduced the chance of outbreaks, mainly in breeding flocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“While the Government has provided a protocol for bird flu vaccination, the cost and conditions are
prohibitive for the table egg and chicken industries and require urgent reconsideration by the State.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, the group said that the positive momentum of Rainbow’s turnaround strategy and improved profitability has continued in the first part of the financial year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Revenue growth was largely attributable to an improved sales channel mix, a focus on product mix management and higher volumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group said that it continues to take significant strides in implementing its strategy of becoming a market-leading, low-cost chicken producer in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With this in mind, the group’s available free cash flows are being invested to grow the company’s infrastructure platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The board of directors thus chose not to declare an interim dividend for the period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rainbow Chicken is putting several measures in place to reduce the risk of bird flu, but says that the government must do more to address costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":764601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[20087],"class_list":["post-815755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-rainbow-chicken"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815755"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815781,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815755\/revisions\/815781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Financials<\/strong><\/td> H1 2024<\/strong><\/td> H1 2025<\/strong><\/td> % Change<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Revenue<\/td> 7 249 374<\/td> 7 894 686<\/td> 8.9%<\/td><\/tr> EBITDA<\/td> 265 400<\/td> 581 131<\/td> 119%<\/td><\/tr> Earnings per Share (cents)<\/td> 2.36<\/td> 35.58<\/td> 1 407.6%<\/td><\/tr> Headline earnings per Share (cents)<\/td> 2.46<\/td> 35.64<\/td> 1 348.8%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n