Kerry Group brushed off the potential impact of currency movements and rising input prices on profits today, issuing an upbeat trading statement to the market in which it stated it is on track to deliver full year growth.
The food and ingredients company reiterated its guidance of mid-teen growth in adjusted earnings per share for the full year.
Revenue in the nine-month period to the end of September grew by 8.7 per cent, up 3.5 per cent on the comparable period in 2009.
The company's ingredients and flavours business continued to be the main driver of growth, increasing by 6 per cent, compared to a 3.5 per cent increase in its consumer foods division.
Despite an increase in raw material input costs the company’s ingredients and flavours business continued to see growth across all regions. Business volumes in America were up 5.2 per cent, the EMEA region saw 4.3 per cent growth, while Asia-Pacific markets grew by 15.8 per cent.
Within its consumer foods division, Kerry’s Irish brands, which include Denny, Dairygold, Shaws and Galtee, returned to growth as a result of brand repositioning.
The UK market saw double digit growth for Richmond in the sausage sector, the company said, while Wall’s made “good progress” in savoury pastry products and Mattessons continued to grow the meat snacking segment.
The company’s net debt stood at €1.04 billion at the end of the period, €160m below that reported at the half year, though €60m of this was due to weaker currencies.
Kerry’s trading profit margin increased by 30 basis points – allowing for unallocated development costs relating to the company’s global IT project. This overall margin growth comprised a 50 basis points improvement in ingredients & flavours and a 40 basis points increase in consumer foods.
Results for the first six months of the year showed that Kerry’s trading profit in the first half of 2010 was €204 million, an increase of 13 per cent on the previous year. Just more than 40 per cent of this rise was attributable to acquisitions and positive foreign currency movements.
Kerry’s shares were trading slightly higher this lunchtime, up 3 cent at €26.40.
