By Business & Finance 
Pictured (L-R): Ian Hyland, CEO, Business & Finance Media Group; Stan McCarthy, CEO, Kerry Group; and John Farrelly, SAS Ireland
The food giant’s positive results for the first half of 2015 are capped by an increase in revenue to €3bn and a boost to the earnings guidance for the full year.
Kerry Group, a worldwide name in food production encompassing some of the country’s most well-known brands including Denny and Dairygold, has announced half-year results that reveal growth in key areas.
“We delivered a strong financial performance in the first half of 2015, reporting continued business margin expansion and an 8.1% increase in adjusted earnings per share,” said group chief executive Stan McCarthy. “Based on group year-to-date performance, current exchange rates and business momentum, we are increasing our market guidance for the full year.”
That guidance has increased to a 6%-9% growth in adjusted earnings per share – a range of 296c to 304c. Elsewhere, trading profit is up 9% to €300m, and interim dividend per share has increased by 11.1% to 15c.
Group revenue has risen to 4.7% to €3bn. “Business volumes grew by 2.7% in the period reflecting a strong overall performance in American markets, an improved performance in the EMEA region and continuing good growth in Asia despite a slowdown in some regional markets,” the company said.
The group’s Ingredients and Flavours division accounted for the bulk of the €3bn figure, coming in at €2.3bn – an increase of 8.6% – with business volumes up by 3% and pricing down 2.8%.
Currency featured several times in the group’s half-year results, which recorded a “positive effect of reporting currency of 8.4%”.
SOLID PERFORMANCES
Overseas performance came in particularly strongly, according to the company’s statement. “Kerry delivered a solid performance in the Americas region in the period despite some industry sectorial issues in North America and inflationary pressures in Brazil. Sales revenue on a reported basis increased by 18% to €1,080m. Business volumes grew by 3.3% and pricing declined by 2%.”
Kerry Group also made five acquisitions during the period, at a total cost of €155.8m: US-based Kraft Food Ingredients and Insight Beverages, UK ‘hot-to-go’ company Rollover, Turkey-based sweet ingredient provider PST Pastacilik Gida, and it agreed to acquire Costa Rica-based Baltimore Spice. It also disposed of two Australia and UK businesses for €151.3m before costs.
From humble co-operative beginnings in Listowel in 1972, the company floated on the Dublin Stock Exchange in 1986 and has now become a multinational giant, with offices and production facilities as far afield as Malaysia, Belarus and Thailand. Its €13bn valuation encompasses 24,000 employees and 126 production facilities, with Denny, Galtee, LowLow, Dairygold, Cheesestrings, Charleville, Cheesestrings, Shaws ham and Easi Singles among the group’s household-name brands.
About the CEO
Stan McCarthy joined Kerry Group in 1976, as part of their graduate recruitment programme, working as USA financial controller in the group’s Chicago office during the mid-1980s. He has been an executive director of Kerry Group since 1999, and was appointed chief executive at the beginning of 2008.
A Co. Kerry native, McCarthy also served as vice-president of materials management and purchasing after the group’s $130m takeover of food supplier Beatreme in 1988, vice-president of sales and marketing from 1991, and president of Kerry Ingredients Americas in 1996.
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