Kerry Group shares rise as food services arm shows recovery from Covid-19 hit              

Edmond Scanlon, Chief Executive of Executive Kerry Group said the Irish foods giant was "recovering well". Picture: Colm Mahady / Fennell Photography. Copyright© Fennell Photography 2017

Kerry Group is suffering "an unprecedented" disruption from the Covid-19 crisis, with its foodservice operations hit hard, in particular, but it is seeing some sort of recovery in recent weeks.  

In an update, the Irish foods giant said that the Taste and Nutrition division which includes its foodservice operations had since April been "recovering well". 

Kerry shares rose 2.5% in the session and have gained 7% in the past year.     

"The first half of 2020 has been an unprecedented period due to the Covid‐19 pandemic," chief executive Edmond Scanlon said. 

"Performance in our retail channel improved in the second quarter, primarily through increased consumer demand for authentic cooking, plant‐based offerings, and health and wellness products," he said.

A full copy of our Interim Management Report for the six months ending 30 June 2020 can be found here: https://t.co/KED2jYQkbD pic.twitter.com/9DcTwF3slN

— Kerry (@WeAreKerry) July 31, 2020

For the first six months to the end of June, Kerry said total revenues at €3.4bn were down over 4% from the same period a year earlier. 

Trading profit fell 17.5% to €316m and it had a net profit of €213m, compared with the profit of over €339m for the first six months in 2019. 

"We had a strong start to the year, prior to restrictions on movement impacting business performance as we moved through the first quarter," Mr Scanlon said.