Dear editor,

Kerry Group is no longer under performing – it is destroying shareholder value. As of 28 January, the share price hit €71.80 down from €125.80 in February 2020.

Despite aggressive buybacks, the market cap has collapsed by 50% in nominal terms and over 60% when adjusted for eurozone inflation.

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The market has clearly lost faith in the board’s consistently missed 4-6% volume targets.

Instead, capital has been squandered: over €1bn was burned on buybacks at premium prices while carrying over €2bn in debt.

Management’s biggest demonstration of poor judgment came with the 2019 DuPont bid – a lucky escape from a massive overvaluation that risked the entire group’s survival.

In 2021, during COVID-19, they attempted to offload the dairy business to the co-op for a lofty €800m. Their attempts to get the deal past the co-op board and talks of the co-op bypassing a member vote, the deal collapsed only when co-op shareholders threatened to blockade milk plants.

The co-op, under new management later got the dairy business at a 38% discount to the 2021 price.

Despite the share price hovering at a 10-year low, CEO Edmond Scanlon, a farmer’s son we all rooted for, saw his pay rise 32% to over €6m in 2024, making him one of the best-paid CEOs on the ISEQ while presiding over some of its worst returns.

I am not a rich man, and I didn’t finish school, but I know when a business has lost its way. The “benefit of the doubt” has expired.

It is time for Mr Scanlon to resign.