AUSTRALIA’S largest stockfeed manufacturer, Ridley, has reported earnings up 8.6 percent to $97.8 million for the year ending June 30, 2025.

The move comes as the company advances plans to fold the Incitec Pivot business into Ridley’s existing operations and shift its focus from fertiliser manufacturing to solely distribution.

Ridley’s FY25 net profit after tax was $43.3M, an 8.7pc increase on the previous financial year, while revenue rose 3.1pc to $1.302 billion.

During today’s investor session, Ridley managing director and chief executive officer Quinton Hildebrand said the company achieved positive results across its bulk stockfeed and packaged feeds and ingredients segments.

In bulk stockfeeds, Ridley recorded earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $47.8M, up 8pc on FY24.

“[A] pleasing result, achieved by 11pc volume growth in ruminant sales including high-margin supplementary feeding of beef and sheep during the dry conditions of the second half of FY25,” Mr Hildebrand said.

“We enjoyed a 3pc volume growth in the monogastric sales including the recovery of the layer feed sales in the second half following the avian influenza outbreaks.”

He said the Carrick feedmill in Tasmania, acquired in September 2024, had now scaled to a second shift to cater to additional sales growth.

In packaged feeds and ingredient segment, EBITDA rose 5pc to $62.9M during FY25.

Mr Hildebrand said this was achieved by the full-year contribution of the Oceania Meat Processors petfood input producer acquired last year, alongside volume growth across categories.

“We also had volume growth in ingredient recovery, a 7pc increase in raw-material supply and also a 7pc increase in packaged dog(food) sales produced in the extrusion plant.

“However, lower sales prices for tallow and meals when compared to the prior year have created a headwind, and we have also dealt with lower aqua-nutrition volumes reducing the Narangba operational efficiencies.”

IPF transition progress

Mr Hildebrand also gave shareholders an update on IPF operations, which he said will be transitioned into Ridley’s in three stages.

In May, Ridley announced plans to acquire the IPF distribution business for $300M, in a deal that includes an option to purchase the company’s North Shore site in Geelong for an additional $75M.

He said first will be the “completion” phase involving Dyno Nobel fully separating the IPF businesses from its other operations, and is on track for an end date at the end of the third quarter.

He said the entity will then be integrated with the company as a “single Ridley operating environment”.

“We’ve moved quickly in this regard to establish a project-management office with a well-experienced lead person employed to spearhead this, and we’ve appointed a systems integration partner to plan the transition.”

Mr Hildebrand said the final stage will transition IPF from “a manufacturing entity, which they have been, to a pure distribution business which is efficient and responsive to customers”.

“We’ve commenced a number of reviews, but we will wait to get ownership to be able to progress this to the detail that we require.”

Further bulk expansion considered

Mr Hildebrand said the company was putting together growth plans for its two segments for the financial years 2026-28.

He said at this stage, Ridley would be targeting growth with existing monogastric customers in the bulk stockfeeds segment.

“Within the ruminant sector, we continue to expand our offering…and we have some new capability coming online over the course of this coming year.

“This combination of growth opportunities gives us the reason to consider further debottlenecking and network expansion options for bulk stockfeeds.”

Pet food over aqua

In the packaged and ingredients segment, Ridley will focus on finalising its exit from the aqua nutrition market and putting that capacity into the “higher-returning dogfood sales”.

Mr Hildebrand said this move will be supported by a new initiative, Oceania Petfoods Solutions, which he described as “a one-stop-shop for petfood customers supplying our own products and also being a distributor for other products, along with some technical support.”

He said a new OMP facility, currently under construction, will be commissioned in quarter two, while the Narangba extrusion facility will be returned to full capacity after the company opted to transition it from aqua nutrition to petfood.

Mr Hildebrand said Ridley expected FY26 to see “earnings growth from its diversified portfolio” driven by margin growth from continued premiumisation in petfood and bulk stockfeeds volume growth from new and existing customers.

He said earnings from the IPF acquisition would also be reported in FY26.

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