*Baladna’s herd now consists of more than 18,000 cows, while milk production has doubled

Driven by significant capital investments to expand its production infrastructure, Baladna Food Industries (BFI) has seen its revenues scale up to QR36mn per month in second quarter of 2019, figures released by the company showed on Sunday.

Revenues grew from an average of QR18mn per month in 2018 to an average of QR25mn per month in the first quarter of this year.

The rapid growth in revenue comes as Baladna has outlined an ambitious vision for growth as part of its announced IPO, which will enable Qatari citizens and corporates to share in BFI’s success and future expansion.

Figures released by Baladna on Sunday showed that the “programme of investment” has resulted in a substantial boost in sales revenue.

Since 2017, Baladna has grown rapidly and made significant capital investments to expand its production infrastructure. The company has expanded significantly at its Umm Al-Hawaya farm, with investments in new barns, technology, a plastic factory and bottling facility, and livestock. Baladna’s herd now consists of more than 18,000 cows, while milk production has doubled.

Baladna is now targeting further growth ambitions, and has outlined a vision to become the preferred brand for natural and fresh food and beverages.

Baladna chief executive officer Dr Kamel Abdallah said, “Baladna’s strong sales growth indicates that our investment and long-term strategic ambitions are yielding compelling results. Baladna is one of Qatar’s greatest commercial success stories and I am tremendously proud of how our brand is continuing to captivate the Qatari market, enabling us to drive our vision to become Qatar’s best-loved brand for fresh dairy and beverages.”

The company intends to continue BFI’s transformation by significantly expanding and diversifying its product offering. The company already boasts an expanding range of products to meet the requirements of increasingly health-conscious consumers, looking for better-tasting, more nutritious dairy and juice products.

Development of the infrastructure on the dairy farm has allowed for a sizeable yet natural increase in the number of cows, and the completed dairy processing plant will increase the production capacity and range of available products. The initiatives will also result in higher yield of milk per cow, leading to direct improvement in costs and competitiveness. This will allow the company to support BFI as the primary dairy producer in Qatar.

The company has identified synergistic benefits that it envisages BFI will enjoy by moving from being a dairy company to a dairy and beverage company, through, among other things, juice production at BFI’s current facilities and further developing the existing packaging plant and water treatment facilities within BFI’s operations.

Juice production, which began in the first half of 2019, as well as the dairy operations, will both benefit from the intra-group water supply, Baladna said.

Similar self-sufficiency is intended to be achieved through the packaging plant, and the plant’s production may be sufficient to create an external sales business for plastic bottles.

The company will also develop BFI’s synergistic production and sale of beef and compost.

The company has now announced an IPO on the Qatar Stock Exchange, which will see Baladna Q.P.S.C incorporated as a public shareholding company, which will hold 100% of the shares of BFI.

Until November 7, Qatari investors will be able to subscribe to shares in the offering, the proceeds of which are intended to finance the company’s recent expansion.



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