Finsbury Food Group: announces organic growth of 6.1 percent in the second half 2014/2015

London / UK. (ffg) British Finsbury Food Group PLC, a leading UK Speciality bakery manufacturer of cake, bread and morning goods for the retail and foodservice channels, in July provided an update on trading for the full financial year, ended 27th June 2015, prior to entering its close period. The Group will announce its preliminary results for the year ended 27 June 2015, on Monday 21 September 2015.

The Board is pleased to report that, following the positive half year trading performance, strong trading has continued in the second half and the Group will outperform its current Ebitda and profit expectations. Total Company sales revenues grew to 256.2 million GBP, an increase of 45.8 percent on prior year. This includes organic growth of 10.7 million GBP, an increase of 6.1 percent versus prior year, primarily within Cake.

The Fletchers acquisition, completed at the end of October 2014, contributed 69.3 million GBP of additional sales revenue. Consequently the UK Bakery division grew by 52.2 percent. The acquisition of the assets and business of Johnstones Just Desserts Limited, a supplier of cake to the national coffee shop chains completed on 16th June 2015 and, occurred too late in the year to be material. The Overseas division, the Company’s 50 percent jointly owned European business, grew by one percent versus the prior year in sterling terms.

The second half performance of the Company benefited from the strong growth in sales revenues, together with an earlier than planned delivery of the Fletchers acquisition synergy benefits. This strong performance was further complemented by capital expenditure, depreciation, debt and associated financing costs all being lower than previously forecast.

The Group continues to expect capital expenditure in the year ahead to increase as investment within the Finsbury and Fletchers business continues and the Directors look to maximize the opportunity within Johnstones.

As previously stated, consumer markets remain challenging and we anticipate that the Fletchers and Johnstone’s acquisitions will drive the Group’s growth in the new financial year. The Board believes the larger, more diversified speciality bakery group is a strong multi-channel business, well equipped to deliver growth and improved shareholder value over the coming years.

John Duffy, Chief Executive of Finsbury Food Group, commented: «I am pleased to report the Group’s continued strong trading with growth being driven both organically and also through acquisition. Our Ebitda and profit outperformance illustrates that we have the right strategy in place, particularly in the continued challenging market conditions».

«As one of the largest speciality bakery groups in the UK, we believe we are well positioned to continue to deliver against our strategy and are confident that the business, with our latest acquisitions, will drive Group growth and shareholder value».