Food group Greencore told shareholders today it expected growth this year and would be looking to unlock the potential of its 970 acres of potential development land.
Greencore said it had a strong performance in 2006, as it completed its transformation from a mainly agri-business group into a convenience food producer.
Speaking at the company's AGM, chairman Ned Sullivan said he expected the convenience foods division to drive further growth this year, despite higher prices of raw materials.
Mr Sullivan said the group was pursuing product innovation, pricing and other initiatives to offset strong inflationary pressure on raw materials.
Mr Sullivan said Greencore had submitted proposals for developing its 970 acres of potential development lands at Carlow and Mallow to the relevant County Councils.
'Carlow Gateway and Mallow West are exciting proposals that, if adopted, will deliver significant investment and substantial job creation, providing approximately 2000 jobs in each town', he said. Unions have criticised redundancy terms offered by the company to workers at the plants.
The company said that the second half of the year is a much more significant contributor to group performance, and it anticipates that, barring unforeseen circumstances, earnings per share for financial year 2007 will at least match the current market consensus level of 25.6 cent.
Greencore said the new EU sugar regime, announced in November 2005, posed an 'insurmountable challenge' to profitable sugar beet growing in Ireland and it had responded by committing early to exit sugar production and by defending the Group's entitlement to restructuring aid under EU law.
A trial date for the judicial review of the Irish Government's decision regarding the allocation of EU aid has been set by the Irish High Court for 1 May 2007.
