The fourth quarter was the best of the year, with a net profit of R$21.1 million, compared to a loss of R$22.5 million in the same period in 2022.

March 4, 2024 – FriGol, one of the main and most traditional beef processors in Brazil, recorded net revenue of R$ 3.1 billion in 2023, a drop of 14% compared to 2022, and net profit of R$ 54.5 million, down 59% in the same comparison. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) were R$146.7 million, 41% lower, with a margin of 4.8%.

“It was the second-best financial result in FriGol’s history. The annual comparison needs to be analyzed from the perspective that 2022 was positively atypical for the sector, while 2023 was a year marked by the suspension of exports to China, in addition to a war in Middle East”, points out Eduardo Miron, CEO of FriGol.

In 2023, FriGol invested to increase the production capacity of the three plants located in Lençóis Paulista (São Paulo), Água Azul do Norte and São Félix do Xingu (both in Pará). This resulted in the slaughter of 573,000 cattle during the year, an increase of 21% compared to 2022. It is the second consecutive year that the company has increased production by more than 20%.

“The increase in production was essential for us to achieve positive margins in both the domestic and foreign markets, as we gained more efficiency and achieved an important dilution in fixed costs”, assesses Miron.

“Despite the higher slaughter volume, revenues were lower in comparison, due to a series of factors that occurred during the year, such as the average value of the arroba which fell by around 20%, accompanied by the drop in the price of meat on the national market and abroad”, points out Eduardo Masson, CFO of FriGol.

Sales prices for China, FriGol’s main market remained throughout the year below the practiced in 2022. In the first quarter there was the additional impact of almost a month of the self-embargo on exports to the country, after an atypical case of “mad cow“. The company’s second largest market, Israel, ended the year at war, also negatively influencing exports.

Aiming to diversify markets, the company expanded the portfolio of more than 60 countries to which it exports, gaining new qualifications in 2023 and making the first shipments to Indonesia and Singapore. The bloc of countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is seen as having great potential for the company.

The national market proved to be more attractive at some period in 2023 and FriGol ended the year with the domestic market representing 50% of sales, compared to 47% in the previous year. The balance between the internal and external markets is considered a strategic differential by the company. The focus has been on expanding sales of higher value-added products, such as the FriGol Chef line and the “Complete Butcher Shop” products and services platform, which ended the year with 52 stores in supermarket partners.

Results of the 4^th quarter of 2023

In the fourth quarter, FriGol recorded net revenue of R$ 855 million, an increase of 16% compared to the same period in 2022, and net profit of R$ 21 million, compared to a loss of R$ 22.5 million in the same period of 2022. Ebitda was R$ 72 million, 10 times higher, with a margin of 8.4%.

Strong demand in the domestic market, influenced by the end-of-year celebrations in Brazil and purchases made in China for Chinese New Year, celebrated at the beginning of February 2024, contributed to this result.

Sustainability

Sustainability is at the heart of FriGol’s business strategy.

In 2023, for the second time in a row, the company achieved 100% compliance with the criteria determined by the Conduct Adjustment Term (TAC) for Sustainable Livestock, in an audit supervised by the Federal Public Ministry of Pará. The result released in October proves that all cattle purchased from direct suppliers in the Amazon biome respect socio-environmental criteria.

FriGol was the first company in the sector to implement, in July, the Voluntary Monitoring Protocol for Cattle Suppliers in the Cerrado, coordinated by the organizations Proforest, Imaflora and the National Wildlife Federation – NWF.

The protocol is at the pilot phase, but as FriGol was already prepared for the demands contained in the preliminary version of the document, it took the initiative to implement it in a pioneering way.