November 2014: Greencore Group

Stephen O’Reilly, Sales Manager, SAS Ireland with Patrick Coveney, CEO, Greencore Group

Greencore’s strategy for growth is yielding fruit with the Group recently announcing significant expansion plans and a healthy rise in profits.

In November, Greencore Group plc, the leading international convenience food business announced its results for the year ended September 26th 2014.

The Group reported revenue of £1,273.5m, up 6.4% and up 7.4% on a like-for-like basis, with the Convenience Foods sector of the business reporting revenue of £1,213.4m, up 8.4%.

While Group operating profit was up 11.4% to £82.9m, Greencore reported an operating margin of 6.5% – a 30 bps increase. Growth in adjusted EPS of 13.6% to 15.9p was reported and the proposed final dividend of 3.25p per share, gives a total dividend of 5.45p per share, up 13.5%.

Commenting on the results, Patrick Coveney, CEO of Greencore Group, said: “This has been a year of strong strategic, operational and financial progress for Greencore. The Group’s focus on extending our leadership in the food to go market is yielding great results, with like for like revenue growth in that area of the business exceeding 15%.”

Coveney added: “We have strong market positions, a clear strategy, and are continuing to lay the foundations for future growth through a significant capacity and capability investment programme in both the UK and the US.”

In the US, Greencore is in the process of building a national food-to-go business of scale. To facilitate this, the Group is undertaking a significant and complex programme of development.

“During the year, we undertook a £7m capacity investment in the Jacksonville facility to manufacture frozen food-to-go products for a key customer,” Coveney explained.

“In February 2014, we acquired Lettieri’s, a leading manufacturer of frozen food-to-go products for the US convenience market, with significant surplus production capacity. And in March 2014, we announced the construction of a new facility in Rhode Island at a cost of approximately £20m which will facilitate the closure of two leased sites in Massachusetts and generate annualised savings, once fully realised, estimated at £5m.”

In November, Coveney also announced the development of Greencore’s first West Coast facility in Washington State which will provide both production capacity and a development unit for key customers.

“We enter the new financial year with good momentum and remain well positioned to deliver further progress in FY15 and beyond,” Coveney concluded.