The chief executive of Irish food giant Kerry Group has announced that he plans to stand down from his position in September of this year, with Edmond Scanlon, the group’s current Asia Pacific head, due to take over.
McCarthy has led the owner of the Cheestrings, Richmond and Mattessons brands since 2008.
The announcement was made as Kerry Group announced its preliminary results for the full year, which saw the group post revenue of €6.1 billion, reflecting 3.6% business growth.
The group’s Taste & Nutrition arm posted sales of €4.9 billion, and 4% volume growth, while its Consumer Foods business posted sales of €1.3 billion, and 2.1% volume growth.
Trading profit at the Consumer Foods business was down 6.7% however, to €117 million.
In a statement, Kerry said that ‘in line with growth in snacking and ‘food-to-go’ trends, the [Consumer Foods] division invested significant resources in expanding production and introduction of new processing technologies at the Attleborough and Ossett sites in Britain, Enniskillen and Portadown sites in Northern Ireland, and at the Shillelagh facility in the Republic of Ireland’.
In UK customer branded segments, Kerry Foods ‘maintained a strong performance in the prepared meals category, expanding its offering to the foodservice and ‘direct-to-consumer’ channels’.
Commenting on the group’s overall performance, McCarthy said “In 2016 Kerry delivered good volume growth and a strong financial performance including sustained business margin expansion, record free cash generation and 7.1% growth in adjusted earnings per share.
“The Group remains confident of its ability to sustain profitable growth throughout global markets. In 2017 we expect to achieve good revenue growth and 5% to 9% growth in adjusted earnings per share”.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
