Smurfit Kappa Group has released its annual report for 2015, which shows packaging volume growth of 6 per cent for the year.
Due to the positive results, the company has decided to increase its final dividend by 20 per cent, bringing it to 48 cent a share. Coupled with the interim dividend of 20 cent a share paid in October, this brings the total dividend to 68 cent a share – a 23 per cent increase on the previous year.
The group also made acquisitions worth over €380 million in 2015, and had free cash flow of €388 million.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE) stood at 15.1 per cent for the year, and CEO Tony Smurfit commented, "Our objective is to continue to deliver on our target of 15 per cent ROCE through the cycle."
He continued, "During the year we invested €450 million to optimise the asset quality in our system and our investments in high return capital investment projects are now also delivering incremental EBITDA growth."
"We are continually enhancing the breadth and depth of our service offering for customers, while consistently lowering operating costs through our supply chain," he added.
While acknowledging that the company’s performance is likely to be influenced by the broader macro-economic environment in 2016, Smurfit said he expects growth to continue.
He stated, "we are confident our current investment initiatives, our geographic diversity, our integrated business model and our strong free cash flow generation positions us well for 2016 and beyond."
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Brian Dermody. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
