In the first half of 2016, the climate in the international milk market became somewhat rougher once again. High milk quantities coupled with still slow demand caused raw materials and product prices for milk mass-market products to fall worldwide. Naturally, this also affected special products – but to a significantly lesser degree. The HOCHDORF Group wants to focus even more strongly on these special products in future or is already doing so.

The HOCHDORF Group processed a total of 415.9 million kg of milk, whey, milk permeate and other liquids in the first six months of the year (period in previous year: 421.4 million kg; -1.3%). Liquid intake at Swiss plants was higher than in the previous year. At EU plants, less milk was accepted for strategic reasons on account of the difficult milk market. HOCHDORF sold a total of 125,604 tons of product (period in previous year: 125,767 tons; -0.1%) and generated gross sales revenue of CHF 278.4 million (period in previous year: CHF 284.3 million; -2.1%). The Group increased EBIT to CHF 13.1 million, which at 4.5% of production revenue is significantly above the targeted range of 3.8 to 4.0% for the year. Overall, HOCHDORF performed very well under difficult markets conditions, achieving results that exceeded our expectations.