IAWS said today at its AGM it was satisfied with overall trading in the first five months of its financial year but that agribusiness trading remains difficult.
IAWS, which owns Pierre's, Cuisine de France and Delice de France, boosted its bakery business last month with the €130m acquisition of French Groupe Hubert.
IAWS' food division, which makes specialty baked goods and convenience foods, has been the group's main growth driver amid growing demand for part-baked and ready-to-bake breads. The agribusiness division was hit by lower demand for feed ingredients and the impact of a weak dollar on product prices.
Chairman Philip Lynch said the firm delivered its best ever financial performance in 2004. He said pre-tax profits was nearly €98m and the group generated €80m in free cash before disposals.
He said: 'Our business has a wonderful ability to generate free cash. The repositioning of the business is very evident in the results with food now accounting for 55% of turnover and in excess of 70% of group operating profit.'
IAWS has invested €200m in North America over recent years in both the acquisition of La Brea Bakeries and in the joint venture with Tim Hortons. In 2004 IAWS completed the second phase of the capital expenditure programmes at the Canadian joint venture facility at Brantford. Since the year end IAWS has commissioned additional capacity at the La Brea facility in New Jersey.
Lynch said: 'The acquisition of Carroll Cuisine last May has given us entry to the chilled sector of the food to go market for the first time and we have benefited from new growth opportunities across both the hot food and deli counter as well as in take home convenience food offerings.'
Overall the Lifestyle Foods business delivered sales growth of 7% across Ireland and the UK in the year and IAWS' 22% shareholding in Hiestand performed exceptionally well.
In agribusiness the compound feed market volumes were down 6% on the year, whilst on farm fertiliser usage fell by 7%. The marine protein business was affected by weak price realisations. This business continues to be a strong contributor to cash flow and an important component of the Group's success.
This afternoon on the ISEQ IAWS shares were down over 1% at €12.21.
