Side 4
THE GROUP’S STRATEGY IS WORKING – DESPITE A SMALL HARVEST NIELS DENGSØ JENSEN, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD The drought in the summer of 2018 will go down in history as the worst in living memory. It challenged all of DLG’s core markets in Northern Europe and have put DLG’s owners and customers under pressure, while the derived effects have had a signi cant impact on our grain business. increased quality and better service and counseling services, as well as new varieties, concepts and digital solutions, this gives the best kind of assistance to our owners. By servicing our increasingly more professional farmers, we are ful lling our historical mission that we have had over the last 50 years. Disregarding the extraordinary effects of the drought, the overall annual result for 2018 looks positive. DLG’s overall business is trimmed, in good shape and safeguards the competitiveness of farmers. This re ects how the last ve years’ efforts to streamline the Group has paid off. We have invested in the core business, divested unpro table business areas, internationalised our business, achieved signi cant Group synergies, reduced our costs considerably and created a customer-focused organisation. This has given signi cant results. Even though 2018 was affected by unfavourable weather conditions and was a huge bump on the road, we continue to follow our ambitious Group strategy ‘DLG Leading the Way 2021’. We are maintaining our high earnings ambitions – for the bene t of Danish agriculture and our owners. STRONG COOPERATIVE COMPANIES FOR STRONGER OWNERS As the leading agricultural company, DLG must always take the lead in creating value for tomorrow’s farmers. This has been DLG’s mission ever since it was established in 1969 – and it still is. As a cooperative company, it is our responsibility that our owners stand stronger in a world of more globalised markets and intensi ed production requirements. We are convinced that when a strong DLG increases the farms’ competitiveness through lower costs, Despite the small harvest, DLG has a pro t declaration of DKK 92 million to our owners, which is a great achievement in a dif cult year. In overall terms, we have distributed DKK 439 million in the last four years. Meanwhile, DLG was one of the few agricultural companies to give protein regulation for feed grain, and also took the initiative to raise the protein limit in malt barley. The two initiatives are expected to give our customers a helping hand of around DKK 25 million in the 2018/19 harvest year. UNIQUE DANISH AGRICULTURAL MODEL Even though Danish farmers are under pressure from the small harvest, adverse terms of trade, increased sustainability requirements, changing consumer habits and criticism of animal-based production, we must not forget the unique success of our agricultural industry. The Danish agricultural model’s principles for a sustainable and intensive production are in high demand throughout the world. Our ability to combine high productivity with low climate impact, food safety, animal welfare and quality is in high demand. As an industry, we need to be better at telling the world about our successful achievements. This also applies within DLG, where our constant quest for improvement and streamlining of production and logistics, plant breeding, research and high feed ef ciency plays a major role in reducing the industry’s climate footprint and environmental DLG 2018 4 IN BRIEF
Side 5
impacts. Globally, Denmark is a leader within sustainability – and we need to accept and document this responsibility. Once we dare to take the lead as an industry and agricultural company, many opportunities will come to us. As a market leader, DLG can and must be the preferred partner for all types of agricultural production, ranging from the smallest niche to highly-ef cient pig and milk production, crop cultivation and organic production. Our strong Group strategy makes us well-positioned to create future growth and earnings. Even though we have experienced a year that many would prefer to forget, DLG has nonetheless become one of Europe’s biggest and strongest operators. DLG’s strategy effectively creates value for the Group’s owners and customers, and every opportunity is open to us. We must continue to exploit these opportunities. Niels Dengsø Jensen CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD DLG 2018 5 IN BRIEF
