IAWS sees pre-tax profits rise 26%

Food group IAWS has released interim results for the half year to January 31, 2004.

Total operating profit before goodwill was up by 16% to €40.3m and pre-tax profits rose by 26% to €34.8m.

Earnings per share were up 25% to 22.1c, while the dividend per share rose by 18% to 5.074c.

The group reported a reduction in borrowings of €25m to €219m. The company's underlying sales growth, which included its share of JV, was 8%.

The group's food operations include specialty bread distributor Delice de France, food wholesaler Shamrock Foods, and baking units Cuisine de France and La Brea Bakery (US).

Its agribusiness operations makes and distributes seeds, fertilisers, feed ingredients, farm supplies and pet food ingredients.

Owen Killian, IAWS Group chief executive said: "The Group continues to build a range of strong market positions within each of its industry sectors, in tandem with broadening its geographic base".

Within the Irish market, underlying sales growth was 6%, with efficiencies enhanced by an integrated operational platform.

The company plans to exploit more food-to-go convenience food and expects to meet growth objectives for the full year.

The Shamrock group division saw a fall in underlying sales in the period of almost 7%, due to lower based agency volumes, but otherwise performed well.

IAWS said its British market saw satisfactory underlying sales growth of 5%, and that it saw key opportunities in the food-to-go sector.

The North American market was affected by currency shifts, but otherwise performed well.

Within the US, La Brea, the artisan bread business, had underlying sales growth of 13%, and is well positioned within its sector.

Canadian joint venture, the Tim Hortons outlets, reported a particularly strong performance with all 2,343 Canadian stores and 184 US stores being supplied with par baked products.

In the agri-business sector, underlying sales grew by 11%, driven by higher commodity prices in feed and fertiliser. This was boosted a 25% average increase in British farm incomes.

A weaker pound against the euro also resulted in increased price and support payments to British growers.