A strong profit performance in Scandinavia and the UK helped Total Produce deliver a "robust" performance in 2014. While revenues dipped by 1.4 per cent to €3.13 billion against a difficult operating environment, analysts say that the fresh food company nonetheless reported a sold set of results.

Chairman Carl McCann said the food group delivered “a robust performance” in the 12 months to December 31st 2014, recording a 4.5 per cent increase in adjusted earnings per share in “a mixed year for the fresh produce industry”.

Pre-tax profits fell by 8.1 per cent to € 44.3m, and operating profit was steady on 2013 at € 47 million.

With respect to developments in Russia, Total Produce said that while it does not have any operations there, and group sales to Russia are modest at less than 2 per cent of revenue, “there was an impact on the market generally for certain categories, particularly apples and pears”.

The group invested over € 22m in Europe and North America during the year, and continued into 2015, completing its fourth investment in North America with a 50 per cent investment in Gambles, the Toronto based fresh produce company with annual turnover of CAD$170m.

Total Produce said it will increase its final dividend by 6 per cent to 1.763 cent a share.

“The Group actively continues to pursue further investment opportunities and is targeting adjusted earnings per share for 2015 in the range of 9.2 to 10.2 cent per share,” Mr McCann said.

In a note, Goodbody Stockbrokers said that the results show that the company’s underlying business model remains “robust” and it says the stock is undervalued.