LONDON (Alliance News) - Irish fresh fruit and produce company Fyffes PLC on Thursday said its pretax profit and revenue were both pushed higher by the weakness of the euro in the first half, though it also saw some organic growth and benefited from price increases.
The group said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of June was EUR30.8 million, up from EUR22.2 million a year earlier as its revenue rose to EUR644.3 million from EUR592.8 million, benefiting from the depreciation of the euro against both sterling and the US dollar in the period.
Fyffes said it will pay an interim dividend of 0.8211 euro cents on the back of the results, up from 0.714 euro cents a year earlier.
Fyffes said its sales revenue was also nudged higher by solid organic volume growth in its bananas business, combined with some price increases in each of its product categories. Pineapples were the star performer for the group, as the company hiked prices amid supply constraints. Bananas and the company's US melon business were both stable.
David McCann said the results were in line with the company's expectations and said it reconfirms its earnings guidance for the full year. "This demonstrates the group's ability to quickly adapt to prevailing market conditions given the significant adverse movement in exchange rates earlier in the year. Fyffes continues to pursue increases in selling prices in all markets in this regard," he said.
Fyffes spent much of 2014 trying to complete an agreed merger with the US's Chiquita Brands, but Chiquita's shareholder eventually voted for a rival takeover offer for Chiquita from Brazilian companies Cutrale Group and Safra Group in October. Fyffes walked away with a USD20 million termination fee.
Shares in Fyffes were down 1.5% in London Thursday morning at 101.30 pence.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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