Swiss-Irish food group, Aryzta's pre-tax profits fell by 8.3% during the first half of its financial year.

Its underlying profit fell by 13.4% to €311.5m while revenues rose to €3.9bn, an increase of 1.5%. This bounce was largely related to the strengthening of the US dollar.

It said that growth has been affected by the renewal of deals in North America.

The company, which includes Cuisine de France among its brands, proposes to pay a dividend of 0.5255 euro per share.

The overall amount of cash generated by the group during the six months was ahead of schedule at €267m.

Aryzta bought French frozen retailer Picard in August of last year.

Last week, the group announced that Gary McCann will become its new chairman.

Chief executive Owen Killian commented on the results: "The strategy to invert capital allocation and focus on free cash generation has been successful, with €267m generated in the year, demonstrating the highly cash-generative potential of speciality food."

"Underlying revenue growth has been subdued by the impact of contract renewals in North America during full-year 2016."