Fyffes’ earnings up by 38%

FRUIT importers and distributors Fyffes boosted the pay of chairman David McCann in 2009 to €1.3 million from €1.1m.

Mr McCann was appointed chairman in December 2006 and prior to that he was group chief executive.

The annual report for last year shows that chief executive Coen Bos had his remuneration package improved from €581,000 to €817,000.

The company’s earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) charges hit €20.7m for the year, up almost 38% year on year.

For 2010, Mr McCann said the group’s EBITA target figure is between €14m and €18m, which was the initial guidance given by the group for 2009, he said.

That figure is contingent on the group securing price increases to offset cost inflation and less favourable exchange rates, he said.

In 2009 the group continued to expand its production activities with the acquisition of a pineapple farm in Panama and the purchase of the second 50% of a banana farm in South America.

The group now owns or leases around 6,000 hectares of farm land in Central and South America, enabling it to produce more of the fruit it imports annually. In a year, it distributes 35m cases of bananas across Europe and a further 13m cases in North America through its Turbana joint venture.

A further 8m cases of pineapples as well as 8m cases of winter melons are also sold into its various European and North American outlets.

Fyffes first began importing bananas into Britain 120 years ago, with the first shipment registered in 1888.

The group paid a net dividend of 1.65 cent a share last year against 1.50 cent in 2008.

The group’s share price rose 84% in 2009, but the group is still on a very low multiple of the earnings of the business in 2009, the chairman said.