{"id":881661,"date":"2026-10-30T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=881661"},"modified":"2026-10-30T12:58:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T10:58:40","slug":"good-news-for-owner-of-iconic-south-african-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/881661\/good-news-for-owner-of-iconic-south-african-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Owner of iconic South African brand beats shortages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Oceana Group is anticipating strong earnings growth, aided by a solid contribution from Lucky Star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group, which is involved in the fishing and food processing industry, published a trading update this week, pointing to positive results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said it expects a significant increase in both its earnings per share and Headline Earnings Per Share (HEPS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For earnings per share, Oceana is anticipating an increase between 45% and 55% from the prior year to 815-870 cents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HEPS is expected to rise by 46% to 56% and will be between 825 cents and 880 cents, compared to 564.8 cents in the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company attributed the increase in earnings per share to higher operating profit and strong performance across several areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The expected increase in earnings is primarily attributable to higher operating profit and lower interest costs,” the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Operating profit improved on stronger performances from the fishmeal and fish oil (USA), and wild-caught seafood segments, driven by higher volumes and improved pricing, and a solid contribution from Lucky Star Foods despite limited inventory.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oceana previously said that Lucky Star had seen mixed results<\/a> in the last financial year, largely due to supply shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLucky Star Foods delivered mixed results for the period, with a strong first half followed by a subdued second half through to the end of August,\u201d Oceana Group said in September 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShortages of frozen fish raw material constrained canned pilchard availability and slowed sales momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These shortages also impacted the brands’ canning operations, which struggled to absorb the fixed costs due to lower production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRaw material shortages also reduced local canning production volumes by 60%, placing upward pressure on per-unit production costs due to fixed production costs not being fully absorbed,\u201d Oceana Group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDespite this pressure, operating margins benefited from higher net realised sales values, lower freight and inventory holding costs, a better sales mix and increased volumes of locally caught pilchards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of raw materials ultimately led to Lucky Star having lower inventory volumes than in the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInventory volumes closed significantly lower than the prior period, primarily as a result of the constrained fish supply environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucky Star is a perennial winner at major South African consumer awards, often winning top spots in rankings such as AskAfrika Icon Brands Awards and the Sunday Times Top Brand Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oceana Group plans to publish its financial results for the last financial year on Thursday, 26 November 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Oceana Group expected financial results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>Year ended 30 September 2026<\/strong><\/td>Year ended 30 September 2025<\/strong><\/td>Change %<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Earnings per share (cents)<\/td>815\u2013870<\/td>562.4<\/td>45%\u201355%<\/td><\/tr>
Headline earnings per share (cents)<\/td>825\u2013880<\/td>564.8<\/td>46%\u201356%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Oceana Group is expecting a significant increase in its earnings per share, driven by a strong performance from several sectors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":876397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2116124466174423524","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2254601908693541","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26959,26587,26586],"class_list":["post-881661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-askafrika","tag-lucky-star","tag-oceana-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881661","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881661"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":882212,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881661\/revisions\/882212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}