Kerry first-half earnings rise 6.8 percent
Irish food company Kerry Group posted a 6.8 percent rise in first-half earnings on Tuesday and reconfirmed its full-year earnings per share forecast.
Diageo spirits up after earnings riseAdjusted EPS for the six months to the end of June rose to 62.8 cents (33 pence) from 58.8 cents a year earlier. That compared with the 62.3 cents forecast by Davy, stockbrokers to Kerry Group.
"Building on the group's performance in the half year and the underlying prospects for our business in all regions, we expect a good outturn for 2008," Chief Executive Stan McCarthy said in a statement.
He reconfirmed the company's expectations to grow earnings for the full year to a range of 151 cent to 155 cent per share.
Kerry has managed to pass on big rises in the cost of raw materials to customers and it used the breadth of its product range to maintain sales as consumers trade down from premium categories, Chief Financial Officer Brian Mehigan told Reuters.
"Our business model is well equipped to deal with this sort of an environment," he said in a phone interview.
"The second half will be a challenge but as we said we are confident we can hit the numbers," he added.
Kerry posted sales of 2.36 billion euros in the first half, with revenue growth of 7.3 percent on a like-for-like basis.
(Reporting by Andras Gergely; editing by Sue Thomas)
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