Food company Glanbia reported pre tax profits of €77 million for 2003 but the cost of restructuring its British businesses has cost the company €90 million.
Profit before tax and exceptionals rose 7.4 per cent to €77 million, or 13 per cent when stripping out the effect of the weak dollar. Turnover was down 11.9 per cent to just over €2 billion resulting from the sale of non-core businesses in Britain.
Glanbia has narrowed its focus to concentrate on three areas for future growth - cheese, nutritional ingredients and health foods - and has been selling businesses outside this scope.
Glanbia has started building a $190 million cheese factory in New Mexico, which will position Glanbia as the largest producer of American style cheddar cheese in the US. The company has also signed marketing agreements for a number of latin American countries.
Among the challenges facing Glanbia are the phasing of new projects, the transition to a new EU dairy regime and a weakened dollar. Taking these factors into account, the company's board said expects to make further progress in the current year.
Glanbia will pay a total dividend of 5 cent per share an increase of 5 per cent per share to be paid on May 24th 2004 going ex-dividend on April 23rd 2004.