7th Mar 2019 09:45
LONDON (Alliance News) - Irish fresh food firm Total Produce PLC on Thursday reported a slight fall in profit in a difficult year, though overall results were positive.
Total Produce's pretax profit slipped 3.7% to EUR69.8 million in 2018, despite revenue increasing 18% to EUR5.04 billion on the prior year.
The company's adjusted pretax profit did rise, however, by 0.2% to GBP64.7 million.
Statutory pretax profit was hurt by increased finance costs and a lower share of profit from its joint ventures.
These results include its USD300 million acquisition of fresh fruit and vegetable firm Dole in February. Excluding that, revenue rose 1.6% to EUR4.35 billion and adjusted pretax profit climbed 5.2% to EUR80.7 million.
Total Produce will pay a 2.51 euro cent final dividend, taking the total for 2018 to 3.43 cents after returning 3.34 cents the year before.
In its Europe Eurozone division, Total Produce's revenue fell 1.2% to EUR1.72 billion, though adjusted earnings before interest, tax and amortisation climbed 1.0% to EUR27.3 million.
Trading was difficult, the firm said, due to unusual weather which disrupted supply and demand, particularly in soft fruit, vegetables, and salads. This segment includes France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.
In Europe Non-Eurozone, Total Produce revenue fell 2.0% to EUR1.51 billion, while adjusted Ebita dipped 0.3% to EUR41.6 million.
Once again, adverse weather hurt performance, as did foreign exchange due to weaker sterling and Swedish krona.
In the International business, comprising North America, South America, and India, revenue climbed 11% to EUR1.18 billion, helping adjusted Ebita rise 27% to EUR18.9 million.
Acquisitions helped drive growth, though currency once again provided a headwind.
Looking to 2019, the company is targeting, including Dole, a mid-to-upper single digit increase in adjusted earnings per share on 2018, where the figure was 10.51 cents. Trading so far in 2019 has been "satisfactory".
Shares were 1.6% lower on Thursday morning at a price of 158.36 pence each.
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