Greencore Group PLC
25 September 2007
CONTACT: Ms. C.M. Bergin TELEPHONE: +353 (0)1 605 1004
FAX: +353 (0)1 605 1104
PRE-CLOSE PERIOD UPDATE
GREENCORE GROUP PLC ('Greencore' or 'the Group'), one of Europe's leading
convenience food and malt producers, today issues the following trading
statement ahead of its financial year end on 28 September 2007.
TRADING UPDATE
The Group's expectations for current year earnings continue to improve. The
Board now anticipates that adjusted earnings per share for financial year 2007
will exceed the current market consensus level of 28.4 cent by approximately 5%.
This further improvement in guidance since the Group's interim results
announcement on 31 May 2007 reflects a modest increase in anticipated Group
operating profits, together with a reduction in the Group's tax charge,
consistent with a change in the mix of Group profits.
The Convenience Foods division has experienced a difficult second half of the
year, with unseasonal weather conditions in the UK, together with currently
unrecovered raw material price inflation, contributing to an expected decline in
full year operating profits of approximately 8% on FY06. Market conditions
remain challenging with significant further input cost inflation anticipated.
Despite this, the Group is confident that the combination of strong operational
performance, necessary pricing improvements (some of which have already been
agreed with customers), tight cost management and the delivery of key new
commercial initiatives will enable us to deliver good growth in FY08.
The Ingredients and Related Property division has performed strongly in the
second half of the year and is expected to deliver a significant increase on
FY06 full year profitability. This improvement will more than offset the impact
of the weak second half in Convenience Foods. Our Malt business, which supplies
leading international brewers and distillers, has strengthened as a result of an
improved UK market structure, the benefits of restructuring investments made in
FY05 and FY06, and an excellent operational performance this year such that it
is now earning more acceptable returns. Profitability from each of the other
ingredient businesses and from the disposal of small related properties is also
anticipated to rise strongly year on year. We expect the excellent performance,
evident across this division, to extend into FY08.
On 31 August 2007, the Group completed the sale of its 50 per cent shareholding
in Odlum Group to Origin Enterprises plc, details of which were announced on 31
July 2007. The Group is expected to record an exceptional profit on disposal of
EUR 24m in the current financial year.
The Board is satisfied with Group performance in the year ending 28 September
2007 and looks forward to reporting more fully when preliminary results are
issued on 27 November 2007.
RELATED PROPERTY UPDATE
The Group continues to make good progress with respect to the unlocking of value
from its 970 acres of potential development property. In July 2007, our Mallow
site was allocated a zoning objective for high density mixed use and tourism/
leisure use, with specifics now to be determined by agreement with Cork County
Council. We await publication of the draft Carlow Town Environs Plan by Carlow
County Council that will consider the 'Carlow Gateway' submission, made in
November 2006. The promotional effort in Littlehampton, West Sussex, has made
significant progress, albeit this development remains at an early stage.
Finally, we have lodged a planning application for the first phase of a retail
scheme on part of our 40 acre surplus site in Athy, with a second application to
follow in the coming months.
Patrick Coveney
Chief Financial Officer
Greencore Group plc
St Stephen's Green House
Earlsfort Terrace
Dublin 2 25 September 2007
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Patrick Coveney, Chief Financial Officer Tel: +353 (0)1 605 1018
Eoin Tonge, Capital Markets Director Tel: +353 (0)1 605 1018
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
*A Private Investor is a recipient of the information who meets all of the conditions set out below, the recipient:
Obtains access to the information in a personal capacity;
Is not required to be regulated or supervised by a body concerned with the regulation or supervision of investment or financial services;
Is not currently registered or qualified as a professional securities trader or investment adviser with any national or state exchange, regulatory authority, professional association or recognised professional body;
Does not currently act in any capacity as an investment adviser, whether or not they have at some time been qualified to do so;
Uses the information solely in relation to the management of their personal funds and not as a trader to the public or for the investment of corporate funds;
Does not distribute, republish or otherwise provide any information or derived works to any third party in any manner or use or process information or derived works for any commercial purposes.
Please note, this site uses cookies. Some of the cookies are essential for parts of the site to operate and have already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but if you do, parts of the site may not work. To find out more about the cookies used on Investegate and how you can manage them, see our Privacy and Cookie Policy
To continue using Investegate, please confirm that you are a private investor as well as agreeing to our Privacy and Cookie Policy & Terms.