Carbery Group, the West Cork based ingredients, flavours, and cheese producer, has reported a positive financial performance for 2022.
It said its group turnover for the year increased by 31% to just under €700.8m.
Carbery said its group EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation (net of grants), amortisation of goodwill and other intangibles and exceptional items) increased by 4% to €52.1m.
Carbery said its milk volumes at the Carbery Ballineen plant decreased to 598 million litres, down 2%.
Carbery is owned by four Irish co-operatives, Bandon, Barryroe, Drinagh and Lisavaird, and employs almost 1,000 people, with 1208 local farmer suppliers.
It operates from 12 locations including Ireland, the UK, the US, Brazil, Italy, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand and supplies more than 50 countries worldwide.
In today's results statement, Carbery said its cheese business continued to perform strongly last year.
It produced cheese for 12 months of the year, and of the 63,000 tonnes produced in 2021, 12,000 of this was mozzarella, produced through the expanded facility in Ballineen.
It noted that price inflation and rising energy costs were challenges that had to be tightly managed.
In the second full year of mozzarella production, it said that all product was placed in the market.
"There is strong stability in this business and Carbery have built a strong customer base across Europe and Asia," it stated.
Carbery said its nutritional ingredients business also had another strong performance in 2022.
Its whey-based ingredients are used in nutritional applications such as infant formula, sports nutrition and clinical nutrition.
The unit's customers are located across geographical markets including the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Carbery's Flavours Division, Synergy, reported a strong performance in 2022 despite a challenging backdrop.
It said that global disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine, soaring energy prices and the Covid pandemic brought a new dimension of complexity to manage in terms of supply chain and inflation.
"Synergy has worked closely with customers to support them during a difficult inflationary environment and uncertain market conditions," Carbery said.
Carbery chief executive Jason Hawkins said the company was pleased to be able to report a successful year for 2022.
"This is in the form of revenue and business performance, which saw record returns from markets for our products, but balanced with very high input costs for Carbery and for our farmer shareholders," the CEO said.
"What I judge to be more important is that we managed this situation to build for our future. Introducing Futureproof, our sustainability bonus for our suppliers, supporting shareholders on fixed milk contracts, and setting aside €10m for our Sustainability Fund to support milk price challenges through 2023," he said.
"These are forward-looking initiatives designed to ensure a stable future for our shareholders," he added.
Carbery Chairman Cormac O'Keeffe said that 2022 was a banner year for milk prices, and Carbery were happy to be able to deliver these in line with shareholder expectations.
"There is a lot to be hopeful for within the sector. We know our climate targets, we know what we need to achieve and through Farm Zero C and other projects we are pioneering science-based innovations that will help us to reach these targets," he added.
