Sales up, profits down at Kerry Group

Food group Kerry today announced a drop of 25 per cent in pretax profits from €297

Food group Kerry today announced a drop of 25 per cent in pretax profits from €297.9 million in 2005 to €221 million in 2006.

However, sales revenue at the company increased by 4.9 per cent to €4.65 billion over the same period.

The drop in the profits was blamed on exceptional losses of €73.4 million, mainly due to restructuring costs and the losses on the sale of businesses. Without these pretax profits stood at €294 million.

Earnings per share were up 1.7 per cent to 133.9 cent, and the final dividend per share was up 13.6 per cent to 12.5 cent.