Cuisine de France owner IAWS says it is “confident” of meeting analysts' annual estimates after reporting a 34.7 per cent rise in group revenues for the third quarter to €1.9 billion.
In a trading statement IAWS said underlying revenues, excluding acquisitions and currency fluctuations had grown 19.2 per cent over the period to April 26th. Analysts expect adjusted earnings per share to rise 13 percent to €1.06 a share in the year ending in July.
IAWS says it was encouraged by the strategic development of Origin, in which IAWS has a 71 per cent stake, since its IPO.
Owen Killian, IAWS CEO said the level of development would not have been possible without the capital provided by the floatation.
Over the period underlying revenues at Origin rose by 27.9 per cent to €1,05 billion.
“The nine months to April 26th 2008 have delivered excellent revenue and operating profit growth and we continue to see strong underlying growth across all segments of the business”, Mr Killian said.
“The group is confident that it can achieve the market's adjusted earnings expectation for its financial year.”
The Food North America division, comprising sweet-baked goods maker Otis Spunkmeyer and bakery La Brea, posted stronger revenue growth than the European business, with sales growing 30.5 per cent to €347.3 million.
In Europe, where IAWS owns Delice de France (the foodservice equivalent of Cuisine de France) and Carroll Cuisine, revenue grew 10.9 per cent to €524.7 million with underlying revenue growth of 10.5 per cent.
At 9.15am IAWS shares were trading up just under 1 per cent at €15.90, bucking the trend of early trading that has seen the Iseq slide 0.8 per cent.