17th May 2016 06:56
LONDON (Alliance News) - Greencore Group PLC on Tuesday reported a fall in profit in the first half of its financial year due to various exceptional costs it booked, but revenue grew as it performed well in both the UK and US food-to-go sectors.
The Irish convenience food producer said pretax profit in the six months ended March 25 fell to GBP20.8 million from GBP26.3 million in the first half of the prior year, despite revenue growing to GBP691.6 million from GBP639.8 million.
Greencore said it achieved 13% like-for-like revenue growth with strong momentum across UK and US food-to-go activity, although it did acknowledge challenges in the UK grocery sector which it said it expects to remain uncertain.
Profit, however, was hit by a GBP6.0 million exceptional charge relating to the exit from certain facilities in both the UK and US, pre-commissioning costs at new facilities and the restructuring of UK operations. It also recognised a GBP4.0 million charge relating to its former sugar processing sites.
Greencore will pay an interim dividend of 2.55 pence, which is up 6.3% on the first half of the prior year.
"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," Chief Executive Patrick Coveney said in a statement.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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