DUBLIN: Baked foods group Aryzta has announced a sharp drop in earnings in the six months to the end of January as it continued to deal with the reorientation of its North American business and a major investment programme in Europe. The Irish-Swiss company specialises in baked goods including the Cuisine De France brand. It reported revenues of just over €1.9 billion in the first half of its financial year, down 2.8%.
Half yearly earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization slumped 31% to €158.5m, while the company’s underlying net profit decreased by 22.4% to €109.4m Aryzta said it saw its biggest earnings decline in North America, where it is dealing with the loss of a number of contracts as well as higher labour costs. In Europe, the ramping up of new baking capacity in Germany is also taking longer than expected, while Brexit has impacted pricing due to the weakness in sterling. Last month Aryzta said its chief executive Owen Killian would leave the company at the end of its financial year in July, along with its chief financial officer Patrick McEniff and the head of its business in the Americas John Yamin. But today the company said the executives would leave at the end of March.
Aryzta also said today it had appointed David Wilkinson from KPMG as its interim CFO with immediate effect, with Mr Wilkinson reporting directly to the chairman of the board. Mr Wilkinson is a senior partner at KPMG in Dublin and is currently Head of the Advisory Practice in Ireland. He joins the company on secondment from KPMG and Aryzta said he will support its executive management team during the management transition process. The company also said it would engage an international recruitment firm to assist in the hiring of a new CEO and a permanent CFO. “In these circumstances, the board is not in a position to provide guidance,” the company said in today’s results statement.
