Kerry spending millions of euros to go nowhere

I noticed that when Kerry opened the new extension to its Cheestrings production facility in Charleville, the company pulled out all the stops. Not one, but two, government ministers were in attendance to cut the ribbon on the facility. Speeches were given, tours were completed and cheese was eaten.

The news of all the glad-handling in Charleville reminded me of a less cordial time at the plant when workers went on strike in early 2017 in a dispute over working conditions. During the strike management of Kerry rolled up their sleeves – and put on their hairnets – and manned the Cheestrings line themselves in order to keep it operating to some extent during the strike.

That attitude of ‘if you won’t help, we’ll do it ourselves’ seems to still live in Kerry these days.

The company’s share price hasn’t had a great run in recent years. Back in July 2021 they were trading at €124.50 each, putting the value of the company at just over €22bn. It seems that since then global stock market investors have kind of fallen out of love with the company. The share price turned lower and continued to drop until it hit a low of under €73 in late October last year – putting the value of Kerry Group at €12.9bn – a loss of more than €9bn in value in just over three years.

Perhaps channelling the spirit of 2017, management stepped up and announced that the company would start buying the shares itself, as many other companies do.

Between November 2023 and the end of April Kerry spent €300m on its own shares. When that money was spent, the share price had risen to €80.80. Kerry weren’t stopping there and announced a new €300m purchase scheme which began in early May and is scheduled to run until mid-December. The interesting thing is the new purchase scheme seems to have been less effective so far at raising Kerry’s share price – in fact, the opposite happened, with the share price dropping back below €76 on the day the ribbon was cut in Charleville.

Since then, the company has spent over €4.5m a day buying its own shares, and the price per share remains at €76. Kerry has spent a lot more on buying its shares since that 13 June Cheestrings opening than it did on the investment in the facility. It should also be noted that management bonuses are also linked-in the share price.