Net profit jumped by 30% to $18.95m, up from $14.49m the previous year and a net loss of $4.7m in 2022.
The company paid a $15m dividend to Riviera Holdings (AUS) Pty, which is owned by the Froneri Group, the world’s second largest manufacturer of ice cream, with around 12,000 employees in 24 countries.
Froneri is owned and controlled in equal shares between private equity firm PAI Partners and Nestlé SA.
The New Zealand accounts show that Froneri is making headway in boosting Tip Top’s brand portfolio in export markets.
New Zealand sales revenue in FY24 was $175.6m, compared to $162.9m compared to the previous year. Revenue from “other countries” increased by $10m to $32.25m.
In 2018/19, exports made up only about 10 per cent of sales, whereas last year the figure was 15.5%.
While it has previously recorded impairments to its Tip Top and Kapiti brands, no further impairment was recognised in 2024.
Tip Top has had several different owners over the years, after starting off as an ice-cream parlour in Wellington in 1936.
By 1962, its Mt Wellington plant had become the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest ice-cream factory.
The company went to Goodman Fielder in 1987, Heinz in 1992, West Australia’s Peters and Brownes in 1997, Kiwi Dairy Co in 2000, and to Fonterra in 2001.
Tip Top’s improved financial performance comes as Fonterra looks to sell further assets, including its global consumer business, which includes well-known brands such as Mainland Group, which analysts estimate could fetch up to $3 billion.
Fonterra is running a process to divest its consumer business, which also includes all of its Australian operations.
The sale process is being run by Craigs Investment Partners, Jarden and JP Morgan.
The Australian newspaper reported last week that French dairy giant Lactalis had applied to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to buy Mainland.
A would-be rival suitor – Bega Cheese – claims to have been shut out of the bidding by Fonterra, reportedly because the Australian company has refused to waive its rights over the brand-licence agreement it has had with Fonterra for some time.
Fonterra says it has received “meaningful buyer interest” in the businesses in line for sale.
