TALLINN — The Estonian frozen food giant Premia Food managed to increase profits in 2009 despite lower turnover.

The company reported €68.7 million turnover for 2009, decreasing by 11 percent compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, the company’s pretax profit increased by 21.9 million krooni (€1.3 million) to 97.1 million krooni (€6.2 million).

Two-thirds of company’s turnover is from exports and financial director Andri Avila told Äripäev that in Finland the annual turnover surprisingly grew but elsewhere decreased, especially in the Latvian frozen food market. Yet, the ice cream sales, which is 23 percent of the whole turnover, were stable.

Premia is controlled by the Luxembourgish Amber Trust II buyout/private equity fund.