Strong Showing by Kerry Group
Kerry Group, the international ingredients, flavours and consumer foods manufacturer, increased revenue by 9.7% to Eur5.0b in 2010 and trading profit by 11.3% to Eur470m, resulting in an improvement of 20 basis points in group trading profit margin to 9.5%. On a like-for-like basis, revenue rose by 4.6%. Adjusted profit before tax increased by 16.2% in the year to Eur410m.
Kerry’s ingredients & flavours businesses performed strongly across all technology platforms, end-use markets and geographies during 2010 and achieved a 12.7% increase in sales to Eur3.68b, up 6.6% on a like-for-like basis relative to the prior year. Trading profit grew by 12.8% on a like-for-like basis to Eur401m, reflecting a 50 bps improvement in trading margin to 10.9%.
Stan McCarthy, chief executive of Kerry Group.
Kerry Group completed ten bolt-on acquisitions during the year at a total cost of Eur161m. The acquisitions, which were all by the ingredients & flavours division, strengthened Kerry’s capabilities across a range of technologies and are geographically spread across its three regions – Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific.
Kerry’s consumer foods business was affected by economic conditions in the UK and Ireland, which continued to adversely impact food and beverage demand with shoppers budgeting cautiously for their grocery requirements and promotional activity playing an increasingly prominent role. However in the UK market Kerry Foods continued to achieve solid brand and private label growth. Given the challenging economic situation in Ireland, Kerry Foods has been repositioning its portfolio of market leading brands to meet the needs of value conscious consumers.
The consumer foods divisional performance improved in the second half of 2010 despite the impact of rising raw material costs. Sales revenue in 2010 increased by 3.2% to Eur1.77b, reflecting like-for-like growth of 1.3%. Divisional trading profit grew by 5.3% like-for-like to Eur132m, reflecting a 40 basis points improvement in trading profit margin to 7.5%.
“Kerry Group achieved excellent results in 2010. Business development in the group’s established and emerging markets proved highly successful delivering strong volume growth and good margin progression. We achieved a 16.8% increase in earnings per share to 194.5 cent. Taking into account the phasing of raw material cost recovery and exchange rate variability, we expect to achieve growth in adjusted earnings per share in
2011 to a range of 210 to 218 cent per share,” comments Stan McCarthy, chief executive of Kerry Group.
