Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Orora Limited half year FY 2022 results media call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Brian Lowe. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Orora's 2022 half year financial results media call. I'll start by taking you through a brief overview of our results announcement before I open up for Q&A. Today, I'm proud to say that we've reported a really strong set of results, building on the momentum from our financial year 2021 and demonstrating the outstanding focus of our team in executing our priorities. Underlying net profit after tax for the group was AUD 102.7 million, which is up 12.9%. Underlying earnings per share increased 22.9% to AUD 0.118 per share. Sales revenue was AUD 1,988.6 million, up 9.6% on the corresponding period. Underlying group EBIT increased 10.4% to AUD 154.5 million.
On a constant currency basis, it was up 11.1%. This outcome was driven by a strong increase in North American earnings, which was up 32.1% on a local currency basis. The interim dividend was increased by 23.1% to AUD 0.08 per share. If we look more closely at our regions in Australasia, sales are up by 0.5% to AUD 443.2 million, reflecting increased aluminum input costs that have been passed through to our customers, as well as a solid demand for cans, which was partially offset by the expected impacts of tariffs on Australian wine exports to China. EBIT in Australasia was down 2.3% on the prior corresponding period and was AUD 84 million, but this is in line with our expectations.
This reflects the business cycling lower wine glass volumes due to the tariffs on Australian wine, as well as some modest COVID-19 related supply chain and customer production disruptions, which impacted can production volumes in late 2021. Pleasingly, the beverage business has since secured alternate growth pathways for our glass business, including spirit and olive oil bottles to replace lost volumes. Demand for cans remains strong, with solid volumes achieved across all categories and strong customer demand forecast for the second half of the year. Our North American businesses delivered another outstanding result for the half, continuing positive performance from financial year 2021. On a reported basis, sales revenue was up 12.6% to $1.54 billion, and in local currency, EBIT was up 32.1% to $51.5 million.
This result was delivered through continued improvement in operating and financial performance, greater focus on sales force effectiveness, using data insights to increase customer profitability, and importantly, managing supply chain inflation to ensure that these impacts are passed on in pricing. As we know, COVID-19 has continued to add complexity and challenge across our teams and to the operating environment. As an essential service provider, Orora maintain its focus on ensuring quality supply to our customers, successfully managing impacts of the recent variant in late 2021. In Australia, some key customer production and supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19 had a modest impact in our beverage volumes in late 2021. In North America, the impact of COVID-19 on the retail landscape progressively improved in the first five months of the half, although the increase in infections slowed activity slightly in December.
Our North American operations were able to minimize the impacts of supply chain and workforce disruptions and supply our customers. A number of additional health and safety measures in response to COVID-19 have been implemented to protect our people to mitigate the risk of transmission across Orora sites and workplaces. Now, underpinning our success is our core strategy. First presented at our FY 2020 results, this guides us toward reaching our ambition of becoming a leading sustainable packaging solutions company. I'll now take you through some of the highlights of the progress against this strategy. In Australasia, we continue to make strategic investments to support our strong outlook for cans volume and with the extension of long-term customer contracts.
This now includes an investment of AUD 110 million to expand our cans multi-site capacity at Dandenong by an additional 10% and our cans capacity at Ballarat by an additional 40%. We expect the Dandenong line to be commissioned in Q4 of FY 2023, and our Ballarat cans line will be commissioned progressively from late FY 2022 and early FY 2023. As mentioned, our glass business has now successfully replaced all of the China export volumes through a combination of our new products focused on import replacement, growth in existing beer, water, and other non-wine categories. Our AUD 25 million Glass Beneficiation Plant at our Gawler site is expected to be commissioned in Q4 of FY 2022, and this significantly increases our use of recycled glass and also supports our sustainability goals.
In North America at OPS, we have continued to improve our operating discipline and financial performance, with both the manufacturing and distribution businesses delivering strong EBIT growth while managing the challenges of a higher inflation environment. We will continue this disciplined approach and will also continue to enhance our business model with initiatives including a refreshed e-commerce platform and customer self-help functionality. Orora Visual is now trading profitably with both revenue and earnings growth achieved through improved execution and a focused cost reduction program. Here, we will look to scale our customer value proposition to broaden our customer base into horticulture, quick service restaurants, and retail segments. I'd now like to turn to sustainability. At our first year results...
In our full year results in FY 2021, we unveiled a new chapter in sustainability at Orora with a refreshed framework comprising the pillars of circular economy, climate change, and community. We also announced a number of goals aligned to these pillars. Under circular economy, we are on track to achieve our 2025 goal of 60% content in the glass packaging we manufacture. With respect to climate change, the company is also on track with a 40% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. A range of initiatives, including oxy-fuel furnace technologies and our AUD 25 million beneficiation plant at Gawler, are underway to support these goals.
Under our community pillar, in the first half of FY 2021, we announced our global diversity, equity, and inclusion goals to increase gender, racial, and cultural representation in various roles across Orora and to ensure pay equity across the company on an ongoing basis. Now in terms of outlook, positive operating and earnings momentum is expected to continue for the Orora Group throughout FY 2022. Correspondingly, we are forecasting FY 2022 EBIT to be higher than FY 2021. In Australasia, EBIT growth is expected for the beverage business in the second half of FY 2022 and with FY 2022 EBIT to be broadly in line with FY 2021. In North America, with sustained improvement in performance in both OPS and OV, we expect EBIT for the second half of FY 2021 to be up on the prior corresponding period, with continued strong earnings growth for the full year.
Now, this outlook remains subject to global and domestic economic conditions, currency fluctuations, and the continuing impact of COVID-19. In summary, I'm incredibly proud of the results announced today, which demonstrates the strength of our diversified packaging businesses and the outstanding commitments of our team to deliver on our strategy. Thank you for listening. I'll now open up for questions.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone. To withdraw your question, press the pound or hash key. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Once again, please press star one if you wish to ask a question. Once again, to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from Wayne Robinson. Please ask your question.
Oh, yeah. Hi, Brian. At the results, at your full year results last year, you talked about strategic review of Orora Visual, whether Orora was the natural owner of the business. Did that review take place? Are you gonna keep the business under your ownership?
Yes, we are. We have completed that review, which was very extensive, and we focused on understanding what the external market looks like, what the alternatives would be for that business, you know, retaining and not retaining the business.
Yeah.
overlaid that against the strategic plan that our management team had put together.
Yeah.
It's quite clear that we've got some good upside in the business, so it'll remain in the portfolio.
Okay. Just a follow-up question to that. Would you anticipate expanding into that market in other areas, Europe or Asia or even here in Australia?
Look, I think in the short to medium term, the focus for Orora Visual will be on improving that business rather than adding to it.
Yeah.
I think we're a fair way from assessing that.
Okay. All right. Thanks, Brian.
Your next question comes from Andy Young. Please ask your question.
Hi, Brian. I know you've sort of highlighted a strong EBIT performance coming for next year in line, pretty much in line with this year. I just wondered how you're feeling long-term about economies, both domestic and global. Obviously, interest rate rise looks likely here, and inflation is climbing in the U.S. How concerned are you about how economic conditions may impact the business long-term?
Certainly from an Australasian perspective, we're very confident in the business, you know, based on the diversity of industries or segments we supply within the beverage categories. You know, they've proven to be very defensive industries, you know, regardless of economic conditions. In North America, you know, our focus and our performance is not driven by, you know, the buoyancy in parts of the economy. In fact, most of our top-line growth has been, you know, based on passing through those cost increases, and we're really focused on improving the margin and quality of earnings in the business. We think we've got some good opportunities in certain segments to continue to grow that business.
Great. Thanks, Brian.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one your telephone keypad. Again, it is star and one if you wish to ask a question. Once again, if you'd like to ask question, just press star one on the telephone keypad.
Operator, if there's no more questions, then thank you all for your time. Any further follow-ups, please feel free to forward them through our media inquiries team. Hopefully, the information is there on the media release for you to do that. We'll happily respond to any questions you have. Thanks for your time today.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect.