Consumer foods group IAWS said this morning its underlying pretax profits for the first half of the year rose 16 per cent to €143 million.
Overall revenue for the period was €1.9 billion, an increase of 22.5 per cent.
Group chief executive Owen Killian said there had been strong growth across IAWS's businesses and that the position had been strengthened by the release of €256 million from the spin-off of agri-nutrition and food company Origin Enterprises.
Origin Enterprises profits were up 10 per cent to €38 million.
IAWS said its adjusted earnings per share rose 15 per cent to 94.17 cent with a final dividend of 7.8 cent creating a total of 15.31 cent for the year.
Sales in IAWS's North American food business rose by 165 per cent to €369 million, lifted by a nine-month contribution from baked-goods company Otis Spunkmeyer. Profits in its North American food units grew by 150 per cent to €41.7 million.
European food revenue grew by 7.3 per cent to €649 million, with profits rising by 10 per cent to €66.6 million.