Kerry Group sticking to growth target

Kerry Group has kept its full-year growth targets unchanged despite reporting a better-than-expected 12% profit increase for the first half.

The Tralee-headquartered international food and ingredients giant, yesterday, beat some analyst forecasts with first-half figures showing a near 12% year-on-year increase in pre-tax profit to €137.2m, a 9.8% annualised rise in trading profit to €267m, 11.7% growth in adjusted earnings per share to 108.9c, and reported revenue of €2.95bn, up 1.1% on the same period last year.

After-tax profit for the period jumped from €104.6m to €117.4m.