Thai Union Group saw its sales drop to THB (Thai Baht) 29.8 billion for the first quarter of the year.
This is mainly due a 6.9% year-on-year (YoY) fall in organic sales growth, declines in ambient, frozen and value-added categories, and a 3.4% YoY unfavourable foreign exchange effect.
Cost discipline helped to maintain a health balance sheet however, with the Group’s gross profit margin rising to 18.8% - a record for the first quarter.
Net profit for Q1 (excluding transformation costs associated with its implementation of Strategy 2030) increased by 8.9% Y-o-Y to THB 1.3 billion. While the reported net profit was reported at THB 1 billion. Thai Union maintained a solid net-debt-to-equity ratio at 1.0x.
“Despite a challenging macro backdrop, we continued to strengthen our core businesses, invest for long-term growth and deliver healthy profitability,” said Thiraphong Chansiri, CEO of Thai Union Group.
“When we embarked on our transformation journey, we knew increasing our agility, efficiency and speed was essential. In today’s world that is never more true. We have laid solid foundations, which are now serving us well and delivering value which will only increase further in the future.”
The company’s PetCare business continued to grow in Q1 2025, with sales ticking up by 5.5% Y-o-Y to THB 4.2 billion. Its growth profit margin stood at 24.5%.
Ambient sales fell by 14.0% to THB 14.7 billion, which the Group suggests was due to a high baseline last year due to strong demand in the Middle East as well as private label sales falling across Europe as customers delayed purchases amid rising fish prices. The growth profit margin was 19.4%.
Frozen sales also softened and were 12.2% lower year-on-year at THB 8.4 billion. The Group attributes this to lower shrimp sales due to a hike in prices in the US. The category’s gross profit margin did improve however, reaching 12.4% - up from 11.8% a year earlier.
Sales for the business’s value-added category saw a drop too, decreasing 3.1% Y-o-Y to THB 2.4 billion.
