Carbery Group has announced a strong operational and financial performance in its 2013 annual results. The Group saw an 11.9% increase in their 2013 turnover to €318.3m (2012: €284.6m) and an increase of 23% in PBT to €13.0m (2012: €10.6m).
Carbery Food Ingredients, which comprises of its nutritional ingredients business and its flavour and taste business, Synergy, performed well for the Group.
Carbery’s continuing focus on high value nutritional applications brought about direct benefits to its ingredients division, while investment in R&D and process, based on its Optipep hydrolysed whey technology, resulted in a range of new products being brought to market during the year. These new products were targeted to the infant formula and clinical nutrition sectors.
Carbery also made significant investments in new infrastructure and partnerships internationally.
In 2012 the Group entered into a joint venture in Southern Brazil, with local multinational, BRF, to build and run a new whey processing plant on the site of BRF’s large cheese facility at Rio Grande do Sul State. Completion of this facility is expected in 2014 with plant commissioning scheduled for Q4. Commenting, Dan MacSweeney, CEO of Carbery Group said: “This joint venture gives us access to large volumes of fresh whey which we will convert into valuable nutritional ingredients, using Carbery’s expertise. We are very excited by the potential of this development for the rapidly developing Latin American food and beverage markets.”
Synergy had another robust year with business continuing to see strong organic growth.
Key highlights for the year included the opening of a new flavour facility at Wauconda, Illinois, and a new manufacturing facility in Thailand to serve the emerging markets of South East Asia. Synergy UK are currently completing construction of new state-of-the-art sensory laboratories at their High Wycombe site. These investments strengthen Synergy's ability to serve its global customers quicker and more effectively with an enhanced geographical footprint and cutting-edge technical capabilities.
Dan MacSweeney added: “There is now a universal focus on the creation of healthier and tastier food and beverages. Today, more than ever before, the insights from science are sought to provide stronger and more compelling nutritional arguments. Carbery’s innovation is focused on helping our customers to satisfy these market needs through bioactive milk fractions and flavours solutions”.
