Kerry Group has this morning, Wednesday, November 6, issued its Interim Management Statement for the nine months ended September 30, 2019.

The global taste, nutrition and consumer foods group – Kerry – reported a 3.1% growth in business volumes in its Interim Management Statement.

The global food ingredients company reported growth of 3.9% in its taste and nutrition sector while consumer foods was highlighted as being down 0.7% (excluding contract exit +0.6%).

Reported revenue in the business was up by 10%, according to the Interim Management Statement.

Earnings guidance for the full year has been reaffirmed while pricing was reported to be down 0.1%.

The group trading margin was up 20bps with the taste and nutrition sector also up 20bps.

Finally, the consumer foods sector was maintained also.

Commenting on the results, Edmond Scanlon, Kerry Group’s CEO, said: “We are pleased with our performance to date in the period, with volume growth ahead of our markets combined with margin expansion.

We enjoyed strong growth in developing markets, as we further deploy our technology and continue our strategic footprint expansion.

He added: “We continued to make strategic acquisitions, and good progress has been made on the integration of acquisitions completed over the last 12 months which are performing well.”

Concluding, Scanlon said: “We reaffirm our full year 2019 guidance of adjusted earnings per share growth of 7% to 9% on a constant currency basis.”