Trading profit slips only slightly; Pack on added value acquisition trail Remarkable result' as ANM defies FMD Scotland's largest livestock auction and red meat business ANM Group defied foot and mouth disease to turn in a solid financial performance for the year to December. Even by the ANM Group's familiar high standards its performance in the latest period was extraordinary: despite the official anti-FMD measures causing shutdown of the core auction business for nine weeks and severe disruption for the rest of the year, total trading profit for the group slipped only to £1.31m from the £1.46m earned in 2000, on throughput down from £153.2m to £132.5m and turnover of £66.2m against £68.7m. Within the auction business Aberdeen and Northern Marts, the swing from a trading profit of £253,000 to a loss of similar size was much less than might have been expected anyway. Said chairman Dennis Crowe: "Our move downstream in the processing sector ensured our results are much more robust than they would have been only a decade ago." The true significance of ANM as an agricultural sector icon becomes visible in the balance sheet. This is immensely strong despite the narrow profit margins typical of upstream food commodity trading and even some of the supposedly added value meat processing activities. The meat division was the biggest contributor to overall profitability. Scotch Premier, which operates two meat plants in Inverurie and this week opens a new specialist lamb plant at Dornoch, increased trading profit from £576,000 to £622,000 and Yorkshire Premier Meat, with processing plants in Sheffield and South Kirkby ­ both of which have recently been extended ­ achieved £800,000 compared with £567,000 the previous year. Turnover at Yorkshire Premier, whose ultimate customers are the biggest spending shoppers in the major multiples, showed only a small increase but lower prices masked a substantial increase in volume. Acquisition of more meat processing operations is a possibility for ANM, chief executive Brian Pack disclosed. "The balance sheet suggests we are cash rich," Pack acknowledged. Takeovers as well as organic growth were strategically probable, "especially added value". {{MEAT }}