26th Nov 2013 11:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Greencore Group PLC Tuesday hiked its total dividend after it posted increases in revenue and pretax profit for the full-year ended September 27.
The convenience food manufacturer posted a final dividend of 2.9 pence per share, bringing its total dividend for the year up to 4.8 pence, an increase of 12.9% from 4.25 pence for the comparable period.
The company posted revenue of GBP1.20 billion, up from GBP1.16 billion in the previous year. Greencore saw a pretax profit of GBP45.2 million, up from GBP28.9 million in the previous year.
Greencore said that UK market conditions have proved challenging, exacerbated by the impact of the horse meat scandal. Sales of its major sub-category of ready meals, Italian ready meals, declined 3.7% following the horse meat scandal. Although industry tests on chilled ready meals were negative for the presence of horse meat, Greencore said, the chilled ready meals market was damaged in the second quarter and remained in decline the second half.
In January, horse DNA was discovered in frozen beefburgers sold at Irish and British supermarkets, which raised concerns about food supply chains and undeclared ingredients.
In Greencore's US business however, the acquisitions of MarketFare and Schau in 2012, as well as the addition of Starbucks as a customer, had brought the business into profitability.
The company said it had entered the new financial year with good momentum in its business, but cautioned that improving economic conditions has not yet had a positive impact on the UK grocery retail market and cost inflation pressures have continued in the UK protein and dairy markets.
"Greencore had a good year in 2013, with clear commercial, strategic and organisational progress delivered across the group," said Chief Executive Officer Patrick Coveney in a statement. "All this was achieved despite a weak UK consumer environment, limited growth in retail food markets, persistent input cost inflation and the negative impact of the horse meat scandal."
Shares in Greencore were trading up 1.2% at 186.00 pence Tuesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
Copyright © 2013 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Greencore