It has been a hard year for ESS-FOOD. Falling demand in Russia hit ESS-FOOD, and the company has also struggled with customers who lost their credit facilities with the banks and could therefore not honour their commitments.

This has entailed serious losses for ESS-FOOD, particularly in Russia. Partly because many goods had already been dispatched when the crisis struck. This meant that the company had to find alternative customers, leading to significant losses.

The crisis has meant that there are various customers we can no longer trade with because they lack credit, and this has had serious financial implications. We have also had to cut our costs, and for example 24 employees have been made redundant at both the head office in Brøndby and abroad. In addition, we have closed our representative offices in Moscow and Toronto, says Managing Director Morten Holm.

The total savings amount to approx. DKK 12 million, which is fully implementedfrom the start of the new financial year.

Having been able to quickly tailor operations to this reduced level of activity is only one of the reasons why Morten Holm takes a bright view of the next year, as there are several markets which look promising.