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Origin pre-tax profit up 8.4pc to E76m

Wednesday, September 19 10:23:40

Pre-tax profits at Dublin-listed fresh foods group, Origin Enterprises, rose by 8.4pc to just over E76m in its full year to the end of July last, it said today.

Group revenues rose by 6.6pc to E1.34 billion as the company as it transformed in to a fast-growing agri concern and integrated and consolidated the business.

"Origin delivered a strong financial and operational performance in 2012 recording an 11pc increase in underlying adjusted earnings per share combined with excellent cash generation," said Origin Chief Executive Officer, Tom O'Mahony.

It recorded a 5.6pc increase in agri-services operating profit to E69.7m and said it cut group debt by E24.3m to E67.8m, highlighting, Mr O'Mahony said, the business' capacity to generate cash.

"2012 was a year of significant business transformation and integration activity which will continue during 2013. The establishment of Agrii as the vehicle to build a scalable and advisory focused farm services platform uniquely positions Origin as the premier provider of total crop management systems in the UK and we are now ideally placed to meet farming's increasing demand for agri-intelligence," he added.

Significant progress was also achieved through the integration of Carrs Fertiliser and Rigby Taylor with these businesses enhancing the Group's route-to-market profile for speciality input applications, he said. The Board is recommending a 36pc increase in the full year dividend to 15 cent per ordinary share reflecting our confidence in the future performance of the Group and the strong cash generative nature of the businesses.