WH Group keeps up the good pork

Good pork for WH Group: the Chinese meat processing company, listed on the Stock Exchange, operates in Romania through Smithfield România SRL.

The name of the company is given by the previous owner, the American group Smithfield Foods, purchased entirely by WH Group. The Americans have entered the Romanian market in 2004 through the Comtim acquisition, the biggest pork meat processing facility in the South-Eastern Europe in 1989, which went bankrupt in 1999.

Good pork for WH Group in Romania

Smithfield România SRL is currently held by two companies with head office in the Netherlands: Lavender Raven BV and Smithfield Europe BV. After the Chinese from WH Group entered the Romanian market, Smithfield România SA also purchased other local companies for meat processing or with connected objects of activity (Agroalim Logistic SA, Vericom 2001 SRL, Elit SRL, Maier Com SRL).

In 2018, Smithfield România SRL registered revenues of RON 901 million (approx. EUR 200 million) and a net profit exceeding RON 28 million (approx. EUR 6.5 million) with 1,168 employees.

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In the same fiscal year, Elit SRL registered revenues of RON 420 million (approx. EUR 93 million) and a net profit of almost RON 27 million (EUR 6 million) with 1,489 employees.

Big money

Also, in 2018, Vericom 2001 SRL registered revenues of RON 110 million (approx. EUR 25 million) and a net profit of RON 5.5 million (EUR 1.2 million), but the number of employees was never communicated.

So all the companies owned by WH Group in Romania registered revenues of EUR 320 million, a net profit of almost EUR 14 million with at least 2,700 employees. WH Group Ltd, the largest pork meat processing company in China, reported an increase of profit by 32% in 2019 following an increase of pork meat prices on the Chinese market, according to Reuters.