Greencore today published its first-half results for 2024, noting strong profit recovery and forecasting full-year results ahead of expectations.
The results – for the first half of the year ending 29 March 2024 – indicated that the leading manufacturer for convenience food in the UK was experiencing volume growth ahead of the wider market.
Greencore reported that overall revenue fell by 6.4% to £866.1 million from £925.8 million the previous year.
However, this decline reflects the decision to exit a number of low margin contracts in FY2023 and the Trilby Trading disposal.
On a like-for-like (LFL) basis, revenue growth was 4.1%, with a 1.2% increase owing to volume growth and mix impact.
The adjusted operating profit also saw strong growth to £28.3 million with a 200 basis points margin improvement.
Greencore has reiterated its target to return a further £50 million to shareholders over the next 12 months.
This will commence with a share buyback of up to £30 million and if the business continues to trade as expected, the board intends to declare a dividend for the year to September 2024.
‘Continued To Outperform The Market’
Speaking about the results, the chief executive of Greencore Dalton Philips said, “Greencore delivered excellent progress against its strategic priorities in the first half and continued to outperform the market in a difficult consumer spending environment.
“The Group’s accelerating financial performance is very encouraging as we focus on driving profitability and returns.
“We are working with our major retail customers to develop new products and new offerings which are driving the growth of our Food to Go segment ahead of the market.
“We have exited low margin business and we are undertaking a range of actions to increase the returns profile of each element of the portfolio.”
Philips concluded, “We have many opportunities to continue to grow our business profitability and have commenced investing in our IT infrastructure to create a solid platform for growth and enable further efficiency gains across the Group.
“Notwithstanding this additional investment, and while our seasonally stronger second half is still ahead of us, we now expect FY24 adjusted operating profit in a range of £86-88 million, ahead of current market expectations.”
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