Greencore: reports strong revenue led by Food to Go

Dublin / IR. (gg) Greencore Group PLC, a leading international convenience food business, its interim results for the 26 weeks ended 25 March (H1/2016).

Financial Highlights

• Group revenue of 691.6 million GBP, up 8.1 percent as reported and up 7.5 percent on a constant currency basis
• Convenience Foods revenue of 667.9 million GBP, up 7.8 percent in constant currency
• Group operating profit up 8.5 percent to 43.5 million GBP
• Group operating margin of 6.3 percent, unchanged from the prior year
• Adjusted EPS up 7.9 percent to 8.2 GBPence
• Interim dividend of 2.55 GBPence per share, an increase of 6.25 percent versus H1/2015

Strategic Developments

• Continued strong momentum across UK and US food to go activity with like for like revenue growth of 12.7 percent, well ahead of market performance
• Phase two of the Northampton expansion completed on time with commissioning now under way. Phase three also progressing to plan
• Rhode Island site fully operational and Seattle build on track for initial production in June
• Strong pipeline of future growth opportunities

Summary Financial Performance

	H1/2016	H1/2015	Change	Change
	million GBP	million GBP	(as reported)	(constant currency)
Group revenue	691.6	639.8	+8.1%	+7.5%
Group operating profit	43.5	40.1	+8.5%
Group operating margin	6.3%	6.3%	unchanged
Adjusted PBT	36.5	33.4	+9.3%
Adjusted EPS (GBPence)	8.2	7.6	+7.9%
Interim dividend per share (GBPence)	2.55	2.4	+6.25%
Net debt in million GBP	316.0	291.4	+24.6
Convenience Foods Division
Revenue	667.9	614.7	+8.7%	+7.8%
Operating profit	42.9	39.3	+9.2%
Operating margin	6.4%	6.4%	unchanged

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Commenting on the results, Patrick Coveney, Chief Executive Officer, said: «Greencore has performed strongly in the first half of the year. Our strategy of focusing on the UK and US food to go markets is working well and we are continuing to invest in capacity and capability initiatives to support the substantial future growth pipeline.  We are confident of further progress in the months and years ahead».

Outlook

The Group has performed well in H1 16, managing significant levels of change associated with our capacity and capability investment programmes. We have delivered strong revenue growth and have continued to build the pipeline of future growth opportunities. The level of project activity within our business will remain high as we commission new production capacity in several sites across the UK and also in Seattle. The UK backdrop is expected to remain uncertain given the changing nature of the grocery industry and other potential economic headwinds. Notwithstanding these investments and uncertainties, we remain confident in our ability to deliver performance in line with market expectations.