The food, drink, taste and nutrition ingredient business, Kerry Group, has released its Q3 interim management statement 2022 detailing organic growth over the past 12 months.
Its report highlights:
- Group volume growth of 6.6% (Q3: +6.2%)
- Group pricing of +10.6% (Q3: +15.3%)
- Taste and Nutrition: Volume +8.5% | Pricing +7.5%
- Dairy Ireland¹: Volume +1.8% | Pricing +36.6%
- Group EBITDA margin -40bps
- Full year EPS guidance updated
¹ Pro-forma growth excluding the Consumer Foods Meats and Meals business disposal
Edmond Scanlon, Kerry Group chief executive officer said: “We achieved excellent growth across the period through a combination of strong business volumes and pricing, as we continue to manage through this unprecedented inflationary pricing environment in collaboration with our customers. Our volume growth was broad based across our regions, channels and markets, led by excellent performances in snacks, beverage, meat and bakery in particular. We also made good strategic progress with further footprint expansion and strategic acquisitions.”
He continued: “While we recognise the current level of uncertainty in the marketplace, we feel very well positioned as we continue to support our customers in addressing the various market challenges and opportunities. Given we have now reported the third quarter, we are updating our full year earnings guidance to 6% to 8% growth on a constant currency basis.”
Europe Region
- Overall volume growth of 6.2% with Q3 growth of 4.4%
- Volume growth led by snacks, dairy and meals markets
- Growth led by Central and Southern Europe
In the period, performance in snacks, dairy and meals was reported to have led broad based growth across food and beverage markets. Snacks were said to have achieved strong growth with Kerry’s Tastesense™ salt reduction technology portfolio, driven by increased customer focus on enhancing products’ nutritional profiles. Growth in Dairy was strong, supported by new launches in ice cream and dairy alternative innovations in the foodservice channel. Meals achieved good growth through taste systems and functional solutions while growth in Beverage was claimed to be driven by sales of products incorporating Kerry’s botanicals, natural extracts and sugar reduction technologies.
The strong overall volume growth in the region was led by the foodservice channel supported by new menu innovations, and an increased level of seasonal products.
From a geographical perspective growth was strongest in Central and Southern Europe, while performance in Eastern Europe was impacted by the ongoing war in the region. As previously announced, the divestment of the Group’s Russian subsidiary was also completed during the period.
