IFCO banana crate

Pallet services company IFCO has announced that it saw increases in both group revenues and operational profitability through the third quarter of the year.

Currency-adjusted group revenues climbed by 16.1 per cent, the group revealed, to US$240.7m, while operational profitability – or earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) – increased by 18.3 per cent to US$45.8m.

RPC management services delivered gains in revenues of 23.6 per cent and EBITDA of 17.6 per cent through the quarter, IFCO said, while the group's pallet management services business segment enjoyed revenue growth of 4.7 per cent and a rise in EBITDA of 17.6 per cent.

'Economic conditions may remain uncertain in our key markets,' the group said in its outlook report. 'The economy in the United States remained weal and is expected only to recover slowly in light of the recent development. Our European business continued to perform very strongly despite mixed economic conditions. However, certain Southern European countries are still suffering from their governmental debt crisis.

'We believe that our current assessment of the markets and our business development... should result in overall significant gains in both revenue and operational profitability in 2011 compared with 2010.'