Food group Kerry has reported pre-tax profits of €392.8m for the year ending December 2010, up from the €251.9m reported the previous year.
Sales in the year increased by 9.7% to €5 billion and the company reported a 5.5% increase in continuing business volumes. The company's trading profit for the year rose by 11.3% to €470m.
Kerry said that strong business volume growth was achieved throughout its established and emerging markets.
However, the company said that due to the cautious consumer sentiment, the consumer foods market in Ireland remained challenging last year
The board is recommending a final dividend of 20 cent per share, up 15.6% on 2009's final dividend. When added to the interim dividend of 8.8 cent per share, this brings the total dividend for the year to 28.8 cent per share, up 15.2% on the previous year.
Taking into account the phasing of raw material cost recovery and changing exchange rates, the company said it expects to achieve growth in adjusted earnings per share in 2011 to between 210-218 cent per share.
'Kerry Group achieved excellent results in 2010. Business development in the group's established and emerging markets proved highly successful delivering strong volume growth and good margin progression,' commented Kerry's chief executive Stan McCarthy.
Kerry is one of the world's biggest food ingredients and flavouring manufacturers, and it is behind household name brands like Denny, Dairygold, Shaws, Michelstown and Dawn and many supermarket private labels.
Kerry revenues up despite increases in input costs
Breaking down the results, Kerry said that revenues at its ingredients and flavours business rose by 6.6% to €3.675 billion with trading profits up 12.8% to €401m despite increases in input costs, including cereal, dairy, sugar, edible oils and energy costs in the second half of the year.
Revenues at its consumer foods division rose by 1.3% to €1.768 billion while trading profits increased by 5.3% to €132m with economic conditions in Ireland and the UK continued to adversely impact food and beverage demand with shoppers looking for bargains.
It said that given the challenging economic situation in Ireland, it has successfully repositioned its portfolio of brands to meet the needs of value conscious consumers through significant brand investment, innovation and a major focus on the division's lean efficiency programme.
Kerry completed ten 'bolt-on' acquisitions during the year at a total cost of €161m. These included companies in Europe, the US and Asia.
'Building on the group's strong performance in 2010 and notwithstanding the challenges arising from the significant increase in raw materials and input costs, we expect that Kerry will achieve good profitable growth in the year ahead,' Mr McCarthy said.
'We will continue to invest in technology development and additional processing facilities to meet customer requirements in the group's established and emerging markets,' he added.
Kerry shares closed up 3.4% at €26.25 in Dublin.
