Aryzta, the Swiss/Irish food and baking company, best known in Ireland for its Cuisine de France range – has acknowledged that the past financial year has been a disappointing one for shareholders, as underlying revenue growth slipped by more than 2%.

Net profits were down to €360m to the end of July, a fall of 4.7% - this was despite a 12.6% increase in sales to €3.8bn.

The company, whose share price has been under pressure due to challenges at its north American food operations in particular and due to concerns over a recent major acquisition in France, has generated more than €600m in cash over the past few months through the sale of its stake in the publicly-quoted agri-services company, Origin.

Aryzta chief executive Owen Killian commented on the company's performance: "the 2015 financial year has been a disappointing year for shareholders as underlying revenue growth failed to materialise, resulting in negative operating leverage.

"Our focus is now on delivering the underlying revenue growth potential of the business, which is expected to generate a tenfold expansion in free cash generation in 2016 financial year to €200m+ and building further thereafter. We expect to achieve underlying fully diluted EPS in the range of 365-385 cent for FY 2016.”