SOUTH AFRICA – South Africa’s fishing giant, Oceana Group has appointed Hajra Karrim as Chief Financial Officer and executive director of the Company, with effect from 1 November 2020.
According to the company’s announcement, Hajra will be taking over from interim Trevor Giles who was appointed Interim CFO in February and will be returning to his role as Group Executive of Business Development at the end of October.
Trevor stepped in as interim CFO following the resignation of Elton Bosch to pursue “other business interests” in January.
“The Board would like to express its appreciation for the professionalism and personal commitment of Trevor Giles, who agreed to take on the role of Interim Chief Financial Officer, during the recruitment process,” stated the company
Hajra holds BCom (Honours) and CA (SA) qualifications and is a seasoned finance executive with an established record of strategic, financial and operational experience across multiple geographies.
She has held a number of executive positions, including that of CFO of the Electronic Media Network Limited Group of Companies (M-Net) and more recently TransUnion Africa Group.
“The Audit Committee is satisfied with the expertise and experience of Ms Karrim to be appointed in this role and look forward to her contribution,” highlighted the company.
Oceana Group is incorporated in South Africa, but has operations in Namibia and the United States.
The producer of canned pilchards under the Lucky Star label delivered a resilient operating performance for the six months ended 31 March 2020 despite the difficult trading conditions in the latter quarter reporting a 2% increase in revenue to R3.62b (US$210m) from R3.55b (US$205.95m) recorded during the same period last year.
The group attributed the rise in revenue to increased African operations’ revenue of 3% mainly attributable to improved canned fish, fish oil and horse mackerel pricing, increased cold storage occupancy levels and the favorable impact of the weaker Rand on export revenues.
Revenue from the companies USA operations, Daybrook, declined 4% due to lower fish oil sales volumes following lower prior year catches and oil yields, partially negated by firmer global fish oil pricing and the favourable US Dollar exchange rate.
Liked this article? Subscribe to Food Business Africa News, our regular email newsletters with the latest news insights from Africa and the World’s food and agro industry. SUBSCRIBE HERE
