Paengaroa-based natural health products company Comvita is forecasting a healthy profit, despite recording a $3.3million loss to begin this financial year.

The net profit of $9.5 million for the full year ending March 2015 is from forecasted sales of $142.5m - a 24 per cent rise on last year.

In a report released this week, the company reports a net, after-tax loss of $3.3m on sales of $59.7m in the first six months through to the end of September - an improvement in an earlier forecast provided to the market.

Comvita chief executive Brett Hewlett says the dip in half-year results is due to the accounting treatment of its beekeeping operations and a negative impact of the non-cash revaluation of warrants held in Derma Sciences.

The one-off costs associated with the acquisition of New Zealand Honey Ltd is also a factor.

In May the company signed a sale and purchase agreement worth $12.3 million to acquire all shares of New Zealand Honey Limited from the New Zealand Honey Producers Co-Operative.

Brett says despite the reported loss, they retain a positive outlook for the full year.

'This is partly due to the company's year-of-two-halves given the imbalance of sales between the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere seasons,” he says.

'Since providing guidance back in September, sales momentum has continued to build, surpassing our internal expectations in the key markets.

'This gives us additional confidence in the projected earnings provided for the full year.

'We note this projection is sensitive to the outcome of the summer honey harvest, the value of product sales and the value of the warrants that we hold in NASDAQ listed Derma Sciences."

The positive approach is based on a number of factors including supply chain issues, which are largely settled having impacted on raw materials, pricing and availability in the past.

Another key contributing factor is that ownership of a very large beekeeping operation has resulted in structural changes to the business.