17th Sep 2018 09:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - Cake maker Finsbury Food Group PLC increased its final dividend on Monday despite profit slipping 66% on lower revenue and the cost of its Grain D'Or site closure.
Finsbury owns brands such as Thornton's, Weight Watchers, Disney cakes, and Vogel's bakery.
For the 12 months to June, Finsbury's pretax profit fell 66% of a statutory basis to GBP4.5 million, though stripping out exceptional costs the figure did rise 4.0% to GBP17.2 million.
"Significant" non-recurring items included GBP11.9 million of costs from the closure of London bakery Grain D'Or.
Finsbury's revenue fell 3.4% year-on-year to GBP303.6 million, though like-for-like revenue increased 2.4%.
The company said it achieved the results despite significant investment made during the year as well as a volatile retail environment and "unprecedented" cost inflation. Capital investment in the year was GBP12.6 million, a record annual figure.
During the year it made no acquisitions despite being on the look-out. Since June's end, however, Finsbury bought baker Ultrapharm, and it still plans on acquisitions in future.
Chief Executive John Duffy commented: "We are looking ahead at steady organic growth, which is no bad thing in the market we're in, but the desire remains to be a strong competitor within our bakery markets.
"The Free From growth opportunity unlocked in the UK and Europe by the post year end acquisition of Ultrapharm is a good example of the opportunity ahead to increase scale via acquisition. This follows three years where we've benefited from optimising the growth platform we've built and are now capable of taking the next steps competently. Three years which I think we've put to good use."
Shares were 0.8% lower on Monday morning at a price of 123.0 pence each.
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