Kerry Group PLC's (Tralee, Ireland) revenue for the nine months ended Sept. 30 rose 10.9% to €4.4 billion reflecting like-for-like (LFL) growth of 2% including acquisitions net of disposals and currency translation.
Continuing business volumes grew by 2.1% and product pricing/mix increased by 0.8%. The company faced challenging market conditions in Europe and a competitive consumer foods market situation in Ireland and the UK, although it made progress in its growth objectives and customer requirements in developing markets.
Revenues in ingredients and flavors rose 14.8% on a reported basis, reflecting 3.5% LFL growth. Continuing business volumes grew by 2.9% outperforming growth rates in its markets. The Americas region had 2.4% continuing business volume growth. Savory, dairy and culinary systems performed well despite sectoral market challenges in particular in the meat industry.
In the EMEA region, continuing business volumes grew by 1.1% despite boosted by the group’s 1 Kerry strategies and transformation programs. Conditions in regional dairy and meat markets remained challenging. However, culinary systems continued to achieve strong market application. In addition, performance in EMEA developing markets continued to benefit from the South Africa based FlavourCraft business acquired in late 2011. Sweet systems performed well in the premium ice cream sector. Kerry also maintained satisfactory progress in the cereals and bars markets despite sectoral competitiveness.
Kerry continues to progress integration of the Cargill flavors business, but development in the beverage sector proved difficult. Enzymes recorded continued growth in Africa and the Middle East. Primary dairy markets improved during the quarter relative to weak international market conditions in the first half of the year.
The Asia-Pacific region delivered 8.3% continuing business volume growth in the first nine months of 2012. Dairy systems achieved strong growth through cheese sauce and yogurt beverage applications in the QSR sector. Meat technologies grew strongly throughout the region. Lipid systems maintained good growth in the nutritional sector. Kerry Pinnacle recorded good growth in the lifestyle bakery category through both retail and QSR channels. Beverage systems growth was also strong.
