By Business & Finance 
Rising through the ranks, the food group chief has been the driving force behind the world leader in the food and ingredients market.
Because
Food group Kerry has reported pre-tax profits of €392.8m for the year ending December 2010, according to the company’s results released this month.
At the heart of this success has been CEO Stan McCarthy, who has been one of the driving forces behind the company which is a world leader in the food and ingredients market.
Successful 2010
The group’s sales in the year increased by 9.7% to €5bn, with trading profit also increasing by 11.3% to €470m. The company reported a 5.5% increase in continuing business volumes. Kerry grew strongly in American markets in 2010, benefiting from the strength of the group’s customer alliances in North American markets and solid growth in Latin America. Revenue increased by 14.9% to €1,479m in the region.
Speaking about the year that was, McCarthy said, “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.”
Investment
McCarthy outlined the company’s long standing commitment to investing in research technology, saying, “We will continue to invest in technology development and additional processing facilities to meet customer requirements in the group’s established and emerging markets.”
CEO
Stan McCarthy was appointed chief executive of Kerry Group plc, a public company listed on the Dublin and London Stock Exchanges, on the first day of 2008. Prior to this appointment, he was president and CEO of Kerry Ingredients Americas since 1996 and before that, an executive director of the group since 1999.
In fact, McCarthy’s career has progressed almost entirely within the Kerry Group. A native of Co Kerry himself, he joined the group’s graduate recruitment programme in 1976 and worked in finance in Ireland until his appointment as financial controller in the USA after Kerry’s representative office was established in Chicago in 1984.
Following the group’s €130m acquisition of Beatreme Food Ingredients (Beatreme is the top speciality food supplier in the US) in 1988, he was appointed vice-president of materials management and purchasing.
In 1991, he was appointed vice-president of sales and marketing and was then named president of Kerry Ingredients Americas in 1996.
History
Headquartered in Tralee, the group employs more than 20,000 people throughout its manufacturing, sales, technology and application centres across Europe, North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Asian Markets.
The company supplies over 15,000 food, food ingredients and flavour products to customers in more than 140 countries worldwide and have established manufacturing facilities in 23 different countries and international sales offices in 20 other countries across the globe.
The group has grown organically and through a series of strategic acquisitions in its relatively short history, from the commissioning of its first dairy and ingredients plant in Listowel, Ireland in 1972.
Kerry Gold
- Kerry has reported pre-tax profits of €392.8m for 2010.
- Sales in the year increased by 9.7% to €5bn.
- The company is the third largest on the ISEQ.
Business & Finance, Business Person of the Month
Business & Finance, in association with MERC Partners, has been awarding excellence in business through the ‘Business Person of the Month’ award over the last number of years. These awards seek to recognise noteworthy achievements in business leadership, and particularly those that make a telling contribution to the wider business community in Ireland.
