Ampol’s earnings of $631.2 million in the year to December 2021 represented a 57 per cent increase on the previous year and the highest since 2018.
The strong results, reported in Ampol’s 2021 Annual Report, included a record total sales volume of 22.04 billion litres and strong international growth including the proposed acquisition of New Zealand’s Z Energy, which owns and operates over 300 fuel stations across the country.
Matt Halliday, Managing Director and CEO of Ampol Australia, said 2021 was a successful and transformational year for Ampol.
“Our strong financial performance reflects the ability of our people to thrive under challenging conditions and demonstrates how our business can respond to the market recovery.”
Halliday said he was proud of the progress made on the company’s strategic priorities including continuing operations at Lytton Refinery, rebranding 880 sites to Ampol, and the opening of 20 new Ampol Woolworths Metro sites.
The Convenience Retail sector delivered an RCOP EBIT of $253.7 million, which was lower than 2020 due to the Covid-19 impacts in the second half that offset positive trends in first half fuel volumes, shop sales and earnings.
Optimising the product range at stores was a key focus for Ampol in 2021, with a segmentation program delivered to reduce waste, allocate stock efficiently, and forecast accurately.
“The delivery of this program included the segmentation of stores based on their sales performance across a range of categories. This resulted in a new methodology for merchandise planning where the breadth of range available at a store is now determined by the store’s performance profile,” stated the report.
The new method is reported to have significantly reduced waste, support profitable operations, and ensure the right product is placed in the right store.
Despite a net profit of $560 million and declaring a dividend of 41 cents per share, shares in the company dropped by two per cent.