LONDON (Alliance News) - Irish fruit and fresh produce company Fyffes PLC on Friday reported a fall in annual profit, despite a rise in revenue, due to exceptional costs it booked, and said it is pursuing necessary increases in selling prices and acquisition opportunities.
Fyffes, which is mostly known for its bananas, said pretax profit in 2015 fell to EUR31.8 million from EUR38.2 million in 2014, even though total revenue grew by 12% to EUR1.22 billion from EUR1.09 billion.
Fyffes said revenue was mainly driven by organic volume growth in the banana and melon categories, as well as by favourable movements in foreign exchange rates, but that pretax profit was hit by a EUR12 million net charge arising from the termination of its Irish defined-benefit pension scheme and a EUR2.9 million charge in relation to a fine paid by one of its joint venture businesses.
Adjusted earnings before interest and tax increased for the seventh consecutive year to EUR45.8 million, a 14% increase on the prior year, and Fyffes said it is targeting Ebita growth of between EUR42 million and EUR48 million in 2016.
Fyffes will pay a total dividend of 2.7451 cents per share, a 15% increase on the 2.387 cents paid the year before.
"Fyffes is pursuing necessary increases in selling prices in all markets in response to the continuing strength of the US dollar against the euro and sterling. The group is also focused on continuing to grow its business and is actively pursuing a number of attractive acquisition opportunities," Chairman David McCann said in a statement.
Fyffes spent much of 2014 in an ultimately failed bid to merge with US rival Chiquita Brands International Inc. In October last year, Fyffes said it had invested USD30 million to expand capacity at its US melon business and had acquired a banana farm in Costa Rica for USD15 million.
Shares in Fyffes were trading up 1.2% at 105.70 pence on Friday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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