IAWS reports growth in profits

Food giant IAWS has today reported pre-tax profits of €143m for the year to the end of July, compared to 123,539 in 2006, a 15.8% increase.

Adjusted earnings per share also saw an increase, up 15.4% from 81.60c to 94.17c, with total revenue up to €1.9bn from €1.58bn in 2006.

"IAWS Group, plc has had an excellent year with strong underlying growth across the entire business,” said group chief executive, Owen Killian.

“This has been a transformational year for the group with our largest ever acquisition, that of Otis Spunkmeyer, in the USA followed by the successful IPO of Origin Enterprises plc in June.

“We also successfully placed US$450m (€318.8m) of long term debt with an average maturity of 9.2 years on favourable terms.

“The combination of the long term debt placing together with the release of €256m (€181.4m) in cash from Origin has considerably strengthened the Group financial position.

“At the same time, the food inflation arising from these trends will affect the trading environment for all food companies. Our Lifestyle Foods proposition to consumers conveys substantial benefits over cost and we remain confident that our business model will continue to generate growth."