Glanbia plc - the global nutrition group in which Tirlán has an approximately 28% shareholding - reported results on Wednesday morning showing a rise in profits for 2023 to $298.1m (€275.4m) from $248m (€229.2m) in 2022.

That increase in profit was realised despite a drop in turnover of 8.7% to $5.4bn (€4.99bn). Glanbia attributed the drop in revenue to changes in dairy pricing during the year.

2023 is the first full year the company is reporting results in US dollars, a change it said better reflects the main currency in which it operates.

The company said it will pay a final divided of 21.12c (€), bringing total payouts per share for 2023 to 35.43c (€), which is a 10% increase on the previous year.

Buyback

Glanbia will also return €100m to shareholders via two buyback programmes of €50m. The first of those will start buying shares immediately – for more on share buybacks, see our explainer here.

Looking at divisional performance, Glanbia Performance Nutrition saw revenue growth of 4.9%, driven by the flagship Optimum Nutrition (ON) brand, which hit $1.1bn (€1bn) in revenue.

The company said that its marketing spend is prioritised for ON, Isopure and think! brands, which it sees as growth brands.

The performance of the Slimfast brand continues to be a drag on the GPN division, with volume decline in the division largely driven by a drop in sales of that brand.

Glanbia Nutritionals, which includes the group’s US cheese operation, saw revenue drop by 12.3% on a like-for-like basis, with pricing accounting for 9% of that drop.

Despite this, the division managed to increase margins in both its nutritional solutions business, to 12.5%, and its US cheese business, to 1.6%.

Looking ahead, Glanbia expects to deliver earnings-per-share growth of between 5% and 8% in 2024.

Shares in Glanbia opened trading in Dublin more than 5% higher at €16.60 in the wake of the announcement.