The financial crisis has been hard on many customers, and this has also been felt at ESS-FOOD France, which has been under pressure after many customers had their credit lines cancelled. Russian and east European customers in particular became unable to pay, and this meant that ESS-FOOD had to sell to the European market at lower prices.

During the first eight months of the financial year we lost a lot of revenue in the trading companies, but customers have returned over the last four months and are now paying cash before we ship the goods. This improves cash flow and also means we do not carry any risk of customers being unable to pay, says Tommy Jensen, General Manager of ESS-FOOD France.

All things considered, he is moderately satisfied with the results.

For the Group as a whole, it has been an okay year which sees us returning a profit, but one which is lower than that for 2008, says Tommy Jensen.

The profit is due in part to the fact that it has been a good year for the subsidiary RAYNAL PETERSEN, which sells to the retail, cash-and-carry and catering market in France. Among other things because the financial crisis has caused necessary adjustments to be made earlier than planned.

The market in France has been characterised by many small producers who have kept prices under pressure. Many of them have disappeared, which means that customer orders are bigger and spread over longer periods, says Tommy Jensen.