Danes are willing to pay a little extra to have a high-quality beef patty in their burgers. With sales more than doubled in the past year, Danish Crown Beef’s BOOST range was the top performer, and Danish Crown-branded products set a new record with 35 per cent growth in overall sales. Such an improvement plays a key role in our ability to match the settlement prices paid in our neighbouring countries. Danish Crown Beef lifted the average settlement price by just over 2 per cent to DKK 31.17 per kilo in the 2022/23 financial year.
“We’re thrilled with the way consumers have welcomed our products. It shows that it is possible to develop and generate growth at a time when we are facing calls almost daily to drop beef, and, clearly, consumers still have a taste for our products,” says Finn Klostermann, CEO of Danish Crown Beef, and he adds:
“Our strategy to create value from our Danish raw materials is working. We will continue this trend through ongoing investments in marketing and product development. Our principal duty is to make it easy for consumers to choose and prepare Danish beef and veal. We have now proved that it can be done, and we will continue to build on this momentum,” explains Finn Klostermann.
Danish Crown Beef generated revenue of DKK 6 billion, which was on a level with the previous year.
“We’ve had a fairly good year and are delivering a stable and satisfactory financial report for Danish Crown Beef. We managed to stay on course in a difficult market and avoided major fluctuations despite a challenging summer period due to the poor weather in northern Europe. Also, we would like to commend all our employees for their strong, dedicated and flexible efforts, which is absolutely essential for us to achieve the goals we have set,” says Finn Klostermann.
It is no secret, however, that beef sales are affected by economic trends, and so inflation left its mark on sales of veal and beef throughout 2022/23.
“Inflation had an adverse impact on the market for large steaks and roasts in our domestic markets in Denmark and Germany. Our export markets, on the other hand, were strong, particularly in southern Europe, resulting in broad-based and balanced sales in our business,” says Finn Klostermann.
A record-high settlement price and relatively stable quotations were important to the cooperative owners of Danish Crown Beef in a year when costs were once again high.
“Despite a fall towards the end of the year, quotations remained relatively high. Going forward, we will stay focused on investing in sustainability and innovation because that way we can better offer our owners a settlement price that underpins a stable business in the value chain,” says Karsten Willumsen.
For the financial year 2022/23, Danish Crown Beef received about 3,000 more animals for slaughter and welcomed a total of 300 new cooperative owners.
“I see this as an expression of confidence in our jointly controlled company,” says Karsten Willumsen.
Operations at the two German abattoirs and at Scan-Hide, a leading European hides producer, as well as the investment in NordicSPOOR, selling top-quality leather to leading manufacturers of luxury products and furniture, are progressing as planned. In the past year, investments were made in the latter in particular, and the cooperative owners will hopefully see the results of this next year and in the years that follow.