Alliance has since released payment details saying it will be made on a stock-supplied calculation on December 19.
The pool payout is only the second in five years for the Southland-based meat processor and exporter, the last one being in 20214.
Revenues for the year ended September 30 were $1.36 billion, down from $1.498b a year earlier, on which the pre-tax earnings were $7.86m
Global market prices have been at the most difficult levels of any of the last five years and any recovery in prices since May was more than offset by rises in the New Zealand dollar, especially against the United Kingdom pound, chairman Murray Taggart said.
Though the difficult market conditions had been challenging for farmers, Alliance had strengthened its balance sheet considerably.
Debt had reduced to $41m at balance date from $129m previously and there was no seasonal debt.
Alliance did not disclose operating cashflow figures in the initial profit release but at earlier presentations to shareholders had indicated a figure of about $120m for the year, up from just $9m a year earlier.
Murray Taggart: Prices at difficult levels.
Alliance was working hard to gain a deeper market penetration and to capture more value out of existing markets, Taggart said.
Under new chief executive David Surveyor, the co-operative is in the early stages of a strategy transformation to make it a fitter, more resilient business able to take greater advantage of export opportunities.
Tangible benefits in the first year were worth $56m, higher than the $34m savings initially expected.
The focus of the year was to ensure the new strategy gained traction, based around creating value from sales and marketing and lowering the cost base, Surveyor said.
Robotic technology was being used to improve in-plant productivity.
Market prices had weakened, reducing group revenues but the value created by the new strategy had allowed the co-operative to act as a buffer and absorb some of the impact on the farmer shareholders, he said.
At balance date, Alliance had shareholders’ funds of $302.5m, making up 71% of total assets. That ratio is up from 58% a year earlier.
Shareholders $1.50 for every lamb supplied, $1 for sheep, $10 for cattle $1 for calves and $5 for deer.
