Global food and ingredients group Glanbia beat market expectations on Wednesday as it reported the fifth year of consecutive double digit growth. It grew its adjusted earnings per share by 10.1 per cent and reported an improved performance for its Irish dairy operations.

Total group revenues advanced by 6.9 per cent to €3.5 billion, as group earnings (EBITA) grew by 7.9 per cent to €245 million in the year to January 3rd 2015.Pre-tax profits dipped slightly, down to €173m from €176m in 2013.

Siobhan Talbot, group managing director, said that the company's focus on two scale growth platforms, global performance nutrition and global ingredients, continued to drive earnings.

“The outlook for 2015 is positive and we are guiding 9 to 11 per cent growth in adjusted earnings per share, constant currency. We continue to successfully execute our growth strategy and this positions Glanbia well for the delivery of our objectives from 2015 to 2018,” she said.

The group’s global performance nutrition division delivered a strong performance in 2014. Revenues increased 13.5 per cent to € 746.2 million reflecting volume growth of 7.4 per cent.

Global ingredients delivered a “satisfactory performance” in 2014 , in the context of “challenging dairy markets which impacted milk procurement and whey pricing dynamics”.

In Ireland, Glanbia reported a 5.4 per cent drop in revenues to €616.7m, but the group said it delivered an improved performance nonetheless, driven primarily by consumer products as an 80 basis points increase in EBITA margins “more than offset the decline in revenues”.

Glanbia said higher margins contributed to the turnaround, but noted that global dairy prices were broadly unchanged during the year.

“The market environment remains challenging both from a retailer and consumer perspective. In this context, we remain focused on the optimisation of our brand portfolio in domestic and international markets as well as operating efficiencies,” Glanbia said.

Looking to 2015, Glanbia said that the outlook for Ireland was “ broadly positive”.

Glanbia said it will pay a final dividend of 6.57 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 11.0 cents per share, representing an increase of 10 per cent.r, said that the company’s focus on two scale growth platforms, global performance nutrition and global ingredients, continued to drive earnings.