By Business & Finance 
Pictured (L-R): John Moloney, chairman, Coillte; Minister Michael Creed TD; and Fergal Leamy, chief executive, Coillte at the launch of Coillte Premium Partners in Macroom, Co. Cork in April
Ireland’s forestry and land solutions company, Coillte, today announced its annual results for 2016.
The company delivered record EBITDA of €98.3m, up 10% on the previous year.
Operating cash flow at €15.2m was up 130% on 2015 while operating profit increased by 6.6% to €64.4m.
The organisation has also reported that a significant structural shift in its cost base will realise cost savings of €15m per annum over the next two years.
Additionally, Coillte has commissioned a new €59m Smartply manufacturing facility in Kilkenny.
Commenting on the results, chief executive of Coillte, Fergal Leamy, said: “During 2016 we made considerable progress towards achieving our ambitious financial and operational targets. A key focus of our new strategy is to grow operating cashflows so that we can increase the return to our shareholder. The significant growth in operating cash gives us further confidence that we can achieve our 5% cash yield target by 2020 and we have set ourselves the challenge of more than doubling operating cashflows in the next two years.
“We are creating stronger businesses that will be more robust into the future. 2016 was a very significant year of progress as we successfully implemented the second year of our ambitious transformation strategy to become the best forestry and land solutions company in Europe.”
