Greencore revenues rise almost 50%

Greencore has revealed a 46.9% rise in revenue growth for the 13 weeks to 29 June 2012.

In an interim management statement for the period to 30 July 2012, the Irish sandwich manufacturer said core growth had risen by 11.1% in its third-quarter trading.

This took into account the Uniq acquisition, along with the exclusion of a selection of dessert product lines as a result of the disposal of its chilled desserts facility in Minsterley, Shropshire, to the Müller Dairy UK group.

Revenues within Greencore’s convenience foods division grew 51.2% overall, compared to last year, to £277.9m in Q3 trading. The firm added that volume-led revenue had increased by 6.6%, with good growth across the key category businesses.

Uniq achieved a 7.3% rise in revenue, with parts of Greencore’s desserts business – which were or are being exited – showing a revenue decline of 52.4%. Revenues from the sale of Cadbury branded desserts to Müller have now been included within “activity to be exited”.
 
Greencore’s ingredients business, which includes the Trilby Trading vegetable oils and fats business, also delivered revenue growth of 5.1%.
 
The firm said in a statement: “Performance across the business in the third quarter was somewhat impacted by weather and the Jubilee celebrations. We experienced strong performance in May in the run-up to the Jubilee Bank Holiday, helped by some good weather, whereas demand in June was impacted by inclement weather conditions.”
 
Greencore added that the acquisitions of US food producers MarketFare and H C Schau and Son at the end of June, had helped to build its business in the US food-to-go market, with a considerable amount of work under way to integrate its US firms.   

Looking ahead, the company said: “The group continues to perform well, despite the challenging and volatile market conditions. While we do not anticipate any material improvement in the trading environment in the near future, we remain confident in our ability to deliver growth in adjusted earnings per share in line with market expectations.”