Produce provider profits fall by 3.3%

Dublin-headquartered Total Produce had revenues of €2.34bn in 2009, a drop of 3.3% on the previous year.

The firm, which is Europe’s No 1 premier fresh produce provider, said adjusted profit before tax was €40.1m, down 1.8%, but up 2.9% on a constant currency basis, leading to adjusted earnings per share of 6.4 cent.

Revenue, including the group’s share of joint ventures and associates, was down 3.3% to €2.43bn, though up by 0.7% on a constant currency basis.

Net debt now stands at €50.6m, down from €60.2m in 2008.

Company chairman, Carl McCann, said the result reflected a ‘resilient performance’ against the background of a ‘challenging economic environment and adverse currency movements’.

It had been a slow start to the year due to the extremely cold weather and heavy snowfalls throughout most of Europe.

This had kept consumers at home, temporarily reducing demand.

However, the company which is the distributor of the tropical range of fruits — for its sister company Fyfes throughout the country — said it remained positive about its position as one of the leading fresh produce companies in Europe. It benefited from a good spread of activities throughout the region.

It grows, sources, imports, packages, distributes and markets over 200 lines of fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers.

The group distributes some 250 million cartons of fresh produce to the retail, wholesale, foodservice and processing sectors across Europe annually.

It operates out of 90 facilities across some 19 countries while serving many more.