FOOD AND dairy company Glanbia says it had a good first-half performance this year and is on target to meet full-year market expectations with double-digit growth.
In a trading statement, the company said all of its divisions performed broadly in line with expectations, as market conditions remained relatively positive.
“Global dairy prices and demand are somewhat weaker when compared with the exceptional growth of 2007 but look set to remain above historical trends,” the company said.
Its Irish food ingredients division had a better performance in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2007, according to the company, while its US food ingredients business continued to grow as a result of positive demand.
For the full year, the timelag between market-price and milk-price movements is expected to result in a weaker margin in the Irish food ingredients business compared with 2007. But it said the US division, benefiting from the strong demand and volume growth, was expected to deliver a good full-year result.
Glanbia also said its nutritionals business experienced good organic growth and was forecast to deliver a positive result for 2008.
International joint ventures recovered well in the first half of the year and were expected to deliver a “significantly improved full-year contribution”.
In the first six months of the year, the performance of Glanbia’s Irish consumer foods division benefited from margin recovery, redressing the impact of the significant raw-material cost increases that were a feature of this business in the second half of 2007.
Despite record increases in the price of feed and fertiliser input costs, Glanbia said its agribusiness delivered a satisfactory result, while the contribution of its property business was broadly in line with the first half of 2007.
NCB said the trading update was as expected.
“Glanbia continues to enjoy good momentum going into the second half, and is well placed for another year of double-digit eps [earnings per share] growth,” it said.
