Tom Summerville, General Manager, Uniplumo and Rory Byrne, CEO Total Produce, inspecting Total Produce’s new glasshouse facility in Wysetown, Co. Meath.
A world leader, with a strong eye on growth through acquisitions, Total Produce plc is the Company of the Month for October 2017.
Total Produce plc is one of the world’s largest fresh produce providers, operating out of 26 countries with a global infrastructure of 138 facilities worldwide. They distribute over 350m cartons of fresh produce annualy. Total Produce is listed on both the Irish and London stock exchanges.
The food distributor, which was spun out of Fyffes in 2007 is headquartered in Dundalk. Their revenues for 2016 were €3.76bn, a growth of 8.9% on prior year. For 2016, shareholders earned 3.039 cent per share, a 10% increase on the previous year, and in August of this year it was announced that adjusted earnings for share was up to 6.78 cents after a strong first-half performance.
Total announced a 10 per cent increase in its interim dividend to 0.8906 cent per share and Chairman Carl McCann said, “The Group continues to target increased full-year adjusted earnings per share in the upper half of the previously-announced range of 12.0 to 13.0 cent per share”.
Map: Total Produce’s global operations as of October 2017.
Total is a European market leader and becoming a more prominent force in the North American market with 21 facilities there, compared to 106 in Europe, 4 in Asia and 7 in South America. The interim results announced this year showed North American operations contributing gross revenues of US$1.2bn.
Important acquisitions
Acquisitions are a key part of the group’s growth strategy, and 2016 saw them spend over €60m on same. During the first six months of this year Total actively pursued further investment opportunities. In March they announced the purchase of a further 30% of Canada’s Grandview Ventures Limited (GVL) which trades under the names of the Oppenheimer Group and Oppy, for a consideration of €28.4 million. In addition to the initial 35% acquired in 2013, this brought Total Produce’s shareholding of GVL to 65% after a total investment of €43.4 million.
Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and with sales of almost €720 million, Oppy operates from a network of locations throughout North America providing premium quality fresh fruit and vegetables year round.
Rory Byrne, Chief Executive
Rory Byrne was appointed as Chief Executive of Total Produce on 30 December 2006. Prior to this, Rory was the Managing Director of the Fyffes General Produce division from 2002 and was appointed to the position of Executive Director in 2006. Rory has extensive experience in the fresh produce industry, having joined Fyffes in 1988 and has held a number of senior positions within Fyffes including Finance Director of the Group’s UK business and Managing Director of its Spanish operations. Rory was honoured at the UCD Business Alumni of the Year 2017 awards in March 2017.
Business & Finance, Company of the Month
