Davomas reports 99% profit increase

JAKARTA (JP): Cocoa butter and powder producer PT Davomas Abadi yesterday announced it had almost doubled its net profit for this year's first nine months.

The company said it increased its net profit 99 percent to Rp 29.9 billion (US$12.7 million) over the same period last year.

Company president Hendrawan Setiadi said the profit jump was attributable to an 88 percent increase in net sales revenue from Rp 85.2 billion to Rp 160.4 billion.

"In volume, the sales of our cocoa butter increased by 75 percent to 16,340 tons in the first nine months of this year over the same period of last year, while the sales of cocoa powder rose by 73 percent to 15,605 tons due to strong demand in the international market," Hendrawan added.

Cocoa butter is widely used in the production of chocolate products, while cocoa powder is used to give non-chocolate products a chocolate flavor..

Hendrawan said Davomas started operating its new production line in August increasing annual production capacity by 20,160 tons to 60,480 tons.

"We intend to modify our production lines to raise the annual capacity by another 20,160 tons next year and another 40,320 tons in 1998," he said.

He added that in 1999, Davomas will operate one new production line with an annual capacity of 40,320 tons.

"Therefore, by the year 2000, we will have a production capacity of approximately 160 million tons per annum. This will also increase our market share from only 2 percent to 5 percent of the world cocoa market," he said.

Hendrawan also disclosed that Davomas had signed a 10-year contract with one of its main buyers to distribute 40,000 tons of cocoa butter and powder annually.

He denied to name the buyer but he said the contract would start in January 1998 and the international market would determine the price.

Davomas Group also owns newly-listed iodized salt producer, PT Firskar Agung. (alo)