LONDON (Alliance News) - Total Produce PLC Tuesday raised its total dividend for 2014, despite seeing pretax profit fall due to a decline in revenue.
The fresh produce distributor proposed a total dividend of 2.403 euro cents for 2014, up from 2.2727 euro cents in 2013.
It posted a pretax profit of EUR44.3 million in 2014, down from EUR48.2 million a year before, as revenue fell to EUR3.13 billion from EUR3.17 billion. The company attributed the fall in revenue to a mixed market, and also noted its previous year results included Capespan Group Ltd, which it sold in April 2013.
In Total Produce's fresh produce division, revenue fell 1.7%, as a result of the lack of contribution from Capespan and of Russian sanctions banning the import of fruits and vegetables. Total Produce does not have any operations in Russia, and noted that its sales to Russia are less than 2% of revenue, but there was still an impact on the market generally, particularly for apples and pears, it said.
In health foods and consumer produce, revenue rose 5.7%, boosted by acquisitions and new business wins.
The company said that it is targeting adjusted earnings per share in the range of 9.2 cents to 10.2 cents per share for 2015.
Shares in Total Produce are trading up 5.7% at 82.45 pence Tuesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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