Evaluation of the Financial Performance of Food Marketing Firms: A Multicriteria Approach

The popular and academic literature contains pure economic tools for evaluating the financial performance for market-oriented businesses, while only a few scientific works realize the importance of financial engineering mechanics of these types of analyses. The current work provides an assessment procedure which includes data analysis techniques in combination with multicriteria analysis methods. This assessment refers to the financial viability of Greek agribusinesses. More specifically, the current work presents the basic principles, according to which agricultural organizations of co-operatives operate and, at the same time, the structure and the main features of the juice market. The periods under examination are: 1993-98 (for the co-operatives) and 1994-98 (for juice producing companies). The analysis is based upon the financial characteristics of 10 agricultural co-operatives and 2 investor-owned firms established and operating in the biggest Greek island, Crete, and the 15 biggest (in economic and financial terms) juice-producing companies in Greece. Both types of selected firms under examination, operate in the field of agricultural food production and marketing. The results obtained indicate the strengths and weaknesses of the firms involved, regarding to their financial behaviour, thus contributing to the identification of the imperfections of the examined firms. Key-words: Co-operatives, fruit-juice companies, financial ratio analysis, data analysis, multicriteria decision aid.