Kerry Group has reported a bump in profits for last year ahead of the sale of its dairy business at the end of December.
The Irish ingredients maker said pre-tax profits rose 8% to €932m in the year to 31 December, despite price cuts making a small dent in revenue.
Total sales – including the dairy business – fell 0.4% to €7.98bn, roughly in line with expectations. Volumes were up 3.3% while pricing fell 1.9%.
Kerry said numerous markets remained subdued, with the group’s performance therefore more normal compared with recent history.
“We are pleased to report a strong performance across the year, with earnings per share growth of 9.7% reflecting continued volume progression in Taste & Nutrition and strong margin expansion across the business,” said CEO Edmond Scanlon.
Kerry agreed to sell its Irish dairy operation to Kerry Co-operative Creameries for €500m last year to help simplify the business to a pure ingredients company.
The first phase was completed on 31 December with the sale of 70% of the business.
Kerry’s discontinued operations brought in over €1bn of revenue in 2024.
Its remaining Taste & Nutrition business saw revenue rise 3.4% to €6.9bn, reflecting volume growth of 3.4%. Pre-tax profits were up 7% to €893m.
Foodservice performed strongly, with volume growth of 6.8%, supported by new menu innovations, seasonal products and solutions designed to reduce operational costs and simplify processes.
Its retail channel was up 1.8%, which reflected good performances in the Americas and APMEA.
Kerry’s volume growth was led by a strong performance in the Americas, where revenue hit €3.8bn due to volume growth of 4.1%.
In North America, it said its snacks division saw a boost due to innovations that use proactive healthy technologies such as Tastesense salt reduction.
Kerry’s customer innovation was more weighted towards renovating existing products last year, with an increased focus on boosting nutritional profile and cutting costs, it said.
“A significant level of new product innovation concentrated on addressing increased consumer demand for new taste experiences and providing relative value options.”
It is now launching another cost-cutting programme – ‘Accelerate 2.0’ – in a bid to make annual savings of €100m by 2028 at a cost of €140m. “This programme will be a key enabler of achieving the group’s 2028 EBITDA margin target,” it said.
Scanlon added: “Kerry remains strongly positioned for good market outperformance due to our unique positioning with our customers as an innovation and renovation partner.
“We expect to deliver good volume growth and strong margin expansion, resulting in constant currency adjusted earnings per share growth of 7% to 11%, after the dilution from the Kerry Dairy Ireland disposal.”
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