Last year's interim profit had been an unduly low figure, and this year the dairy product manufacturer was getting more growth in sales of high-value products such as infant formula.
The company was seeing "margin growth across the board''.
, managing director John Penno told shareholders during the annual meeting today at Synlait's Dunsandel base in Canterbury.
The company wouldn't give more detail on expected first-half earnings because there had only been four months of trading, chairman Graeme Milne said.
More detail on annual earnings outlook would be provided at the half-year point.
However, Synlait was on target to achieve the forecast made when the 2015 accounts were released, which stated that 2016 earnings would be ahead of anything achieved so far.
That would mean a full-year result better than the after-tax earnings of $19.6 million in 2014, which were followed by a $10.6m result last year.
“We are travelling well,” Milne said.
The fall in 2015 earnings was partly because of disappointing sales of the new high-value lactoferrin product.
Penno said sales would double this year because of a Japanese company emerging as a cornerstone customer but at a significantly lower price than was being paid last year.
However, the $300/kg price was in line with the company’s original business case for the product.
World supply of lactoferrin was ahead of demand, and Synlait's own production made up a significant share of that.
Asked when the first dividend might be paid, Milne said Synlait was very much a growth company at the moment.
“We’ve spent a lot of money and are at the peak of our borrowings so we will be focusing on earnings and paying down our debt over the foreseeable future.”
During this time, shareholders’ returns would come through in the share price.
