Fruit and vegetable distributor Total Produce has reported a near 8% rise in pre-tax profits for the year to the end of December.
The company said that trading so far this year has been satisfactory.
Pre-tax profits rose by 7.9% to €37.1m from €34.4m while revenues for the year rose by 11.2% to €2.8 billion from €2.5 billion.
It said the results reflected good trading across all its operating divisions and positive contributions from recent corporate development activity.
Total Produce said its board is recommending a 12% increase in the final dividend to 1.512 cent per share.
Along with the interim dividend, this brings the total dividend for 2012 to 2.079 cent per share, up 10% on the total dividend for 2011.
The company's fresh produce division reported an 11.2% increase in revenues to €2.708 billion, while earnings before interest and tax rose by 17.3% to €51.3m. Total Produce noted that trading was particularly good in the second half of the year as the second half of 2011 was affected by the EHEC scare.
The effect of currency translation had a marginally positive impact overall on the reported results due to the strength of both the Swedish Krona and sterling against the euro, the company added.
Revenues at the company's healthfoods and consumer products distribution division rose by 3.5% to €103m while EBITA rose to €3.2m from €1.2m the previous year.
During the year Total Produce bought shareholdings in a number of companies, including Oppenheimer in North America, Frankort and Koning in the Netherlands and Capespan in South Africa.
Total Produce's chairman Carl McCann said that trading conditions since the start of 2013 have been satisfactory. He said that the group's activities are well diversified across Europe, and more recently in North America and Africa.
He said the group is targeting adjusted earnings per share in the range of 8 to 8.8 cent per share.
''The group continues to actively pursue further investment opportunities,'' he added.
