Profit trebles to $76.7m at Nestlé’s Irish infant formula business

Wyeth Nutritionals, the Irish infant formula business of Swiss food giant Nestlé, has reported a sharp improvement in performance.

Figures for the 2014 financial year, which have just been filed at Companies Office, show the group more than trebled pretax profit to $76.7 million (€70.2m) from $25 million.

Sales at the Irish business jumped by 10 per cent to $525.8 million in 2014.

Nestlé acquired Wyeth Nutritionals from Pfizer in an $11.85 billion deal in 2012. The group employed 4,000 people at that time, including around 600 at its Irish operation in Askeaton, Co Limerick.

Wyeth Nutritionals Ireland Ltd produces a range of powder and liquid “ready to feed” infant formulas including brands such as, S26 Gold, Promil Gold, Progress Gold and Illuma.

A spokeswoman for Wyeth said the company exported to more than 50 countries worldwide from the Askeaton plant. It does not give a geographic breakdown on sales.

Nutrition powders

Infant formula has been a driver of Irish export growth, with the most recent figures showing that exports of specialist nutrition powders from Ireland jumped by 25 per cent globally last year, and by 40 per cent in China alone.

Ireland is now the second largest exporter of infant formula to the fast-growing Chinese market after the Netherlands, having leapfrogged New Zealand last year.

Apart from Wyeth, Abbott, Danone and Kerry Group are also significant Irish players in the infant formula business.

A sharp rise in pension scheme liabilities took some of the gloss off the Wyeth Nutritionals 2014 operating performance.This was due mostly to a change in the financial assumptions for the defined benefit or final salary scheme, even though the value of the invested assets in the pension scheme increased slightly in value.

As a result the bottom line profit came in at just under $5 million. That compares with a loss of $2.6 million in 2013.

The company paid a dividend of $112.3 million to its parent company during the year.

Pay for its directors jumped by a third to $610,000 during the year even though pension contributions on their behalf fell from $63,000 to $45,000.