Dairy products manufacturer Glanbia this morning announced pre-tax profits of €99.5 million for 2007, before exceptionals, a rise of 34 per cent.
In a statement released today Glanbia said its food ingredients and nutritionals division had performed strongly.
Glanbia said revenues increased to €2.207 billion last year, a rise of 19 per cent. This brought the adjusted earnings per share to 28.2 cents, a rose of 25 per cent.
Glanbia also recorded a loss of €20.5 million in its financial statements relating to its exit from the pigmeat sector which it has sold for €35 million.
John Moloney, Glanbia managing director, said Glanbia had an excellent year in 2007. "We are confident of another good performance this year and the group is on target for double digit growth in 2008."
He said the driver of the strong results was the performance of Glanbia's food ingredients and nutritionals division. Glanbia's operations in Ireland accounted for 34 per cent of revenues and 26 per cent of pre-exceptional operating profit.
Glanbia shares opened stronger in Dublin this morning, rising 13 cents (or 2.64 per cent) to €5.05 at 8.30am.
Glanbia employs 4,000 people across three divisions and last year processed 4.1 billion litres of milk from over 5,500 dairy farmers. Glanbia produced over 400,000 tonnes of cheese and 260,000 tonnes of ingredients for export to five continents.