Fyffes, the fruit procurement and distribution company, has reported a 14.2% increase in earnings (EBITA) to €45.8m for its 2015 financial year. Fyffes said it is the seventh consecutive year of earnings growth. Pre-tax profits for the year grew by 14.5% to €44.6m.

The group’s full-year revenues grew by more than 12% to €1.22bn as a result of the positive translation effect from US dollar and pound sterling denominated sales. Underlying revenue growth, excluding the positive effects from currency translation, was 7%.

Fyffes’ earnings per share increased by 14% to 12.73c. The group is proposing a final dividend of the year of 1.924c, which would bring the full year dividend to 2.7451c per share, a 15% year-on-year increase.

David McCann, chair of Fyffes, described the year as another important step-up in earnings for the company.

Consolidation

“The group is focused on consolidating at this higher level of earnings. The initial target EBITA for 2016 is in the range of €42m to €48m. Fyffes is pursuing necessary increases in selling prices in all markets in response to the continuing strength of the US dollar against the euro and sterling. The group is also focused on continuing to grow its business and is actively pursuing a number of attractive acquisition opportunities,” added McCann.

So far in the year to date, Fyffes described trading conditions as satisfactory with the group “actively pursuing” a number of attractive acquisition options. Last year, Fyffes had been on the verge of a merger with its US counterpart Chiquita to create the world’s largest banana company with an annual turnover close to €3.3bn.