Inghams reported 1H25 poultry volumes down 2.7% and EBITDA dropped 10%. Price realisation was good and Inghams had feed cost reductions and admin cost savings to partly offset the volume decline. Prices are 19% higher than three years ago. This is important as it signals that new contract wins to replace lost volume with Woolworths has not been done at irrational prices.

Inghams reported FY24 EBITDA of $240 million pre AASB-16, growth of 29% (on 52-week basis). While the result was good, second-half earnings growth was soft and the company revealed that Woolworths will cut back volumes with Inghams to diversify its supplier risk. We expect Woolworths’ FY25e volumes will fall 10%-20% with Inghams. Lower feed costs are a strong tailwind for FY25e and should offset much of the headwind from lower Woolworths volumes.

Inghams reported 1H24 sales up 9%, gross profit up 32% and EBITDA (pre AASB-16) up 66%. The impressive result needs to be put in context given weak margins in the prior year. We expect EBITDA growth of 16% in 2H24e, with a slightly higher than usual skew of earnings to first-half as volume growth slows. We expect a smaller 6% increase in EBITDA for FY25e, largely driven by lower feed costs. Inghams good growth in FY24e EBITDA will be partly dented at EPS by a higher effective tax rate at 29%, previously 23%.