Ireland

Overview

The Ireland division performed well despite a challenging market environment. This delivered an increase in operating profit, together with a significant improvement in operating margin for the year.

Consumer Foods had a satisfactory year and this compares with a very challenging 2007 when results were affected by a time lag in recovering the impact of higher costs in the marketplace. Agribusiness was ahead of 2007 as a result of a good performance in the feed and fertiliser segments and a strong focus on cost reduction. Glanbia's Property business performed broadly in line with 2007.

Performance summary

Outlook

Reducing farm incomes will have implications for farm input sales and as a result for revenue and profits in Agribusiness. Consumer Foods is expected to deliver a robust performance.