16th Mar 2016 08:31
LONDON (Alliance News) - Baked goods maker Finsbury Food Group PLC on Wednesday posted acquisition-driven growth in pretax profit for the first half of its financial year, but said underlying growth also had been robust.
Pretax profit for the group, which manufactures a range of cake, bread and other bakery goods for retail and foodservice sector clients, said its pretax profit for the 26 weeks to December 26 was GBP7.5 million, up 84% from GBP4.1 million a year earlier.
The sharp growth in profit was driven by the integration of the Fletchers and Johnstone's acquisitions the group made in 2014 and 2015. On a like-for-like basis, however, pretax profit still grew 22%.
Revenue rose 46% to GBP156.6 million from GBP107.6 million, with like-for-like growth at 7.4%, as the group won market share across product lines. Finsbury added that its new cake innovation centre is fully operational, and it has now launched a range of artisan breads for the foodservice sector.
Finsbury will pay an interim dividend of 0.93 pence, up from 0.83p a year earlier.
"We are very pleased to once again be reporting a strong first half performance, with our organic growth being supplemented by the acquisition of Fletchers and Johnstone's. Alongside this growth, our capital investment strategy, together with our continued efficiency programme has resulted in improved operating margins," said Chief Executive John Duffy.
"Despite operating in a challenging market, we have created a group that is well positioned to flourish in an improving environment and we look forward to benefitting from increased consumer confidence. Having built solid foundations and implemented a robust growth strategy that aims to create sustainable value for our stakeholders, we look forward to driving further growth both organically and through strategic M&A," he added.
Shares in Finsbury Food were up 3.5% to 110.20p on Wednesday morning.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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