AGM Statement

Greencore Group PLC 15 February 2007 GREENCORE GROUP PLC ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING CHAIRMAN'S SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT AND TRADING UPDATE At the Annual General Meeting of Greencore Group plc to be held in Dublin today, the chairman, Ned Sullivan, will make the following statement: 'Greencore performed strongly during 2006, a year in which its transformation from a principally agribusiness based group into one of Europe's leading convenience food producers was completed. The Convenience Foods division, which accounted for 92% of the Group's continuing operating profits in 2006, performed strongly with turnover growth of 8.3% and operating profit growth of 5.7%. Margins were broadly maintained (7.7% in 2006 versus 7.8% in 2005) despite divisional energy cost increases of more than Eur5m year-on-year. The Board expects that the strategic and operational model of the Convenience Foods division will drive further growth in 2007. This growth is anticipated despite the occurrence of an electrical fire at our largest sandwich facility at Manton Wood in December 2006 that will negatively impact on the costs of our sandwich business in this financial year. In addition, the division continues to face strong inflationary pressure on raw material pricing. We are aggressively pursuing a broad set of Total Lowest Cost, product innovation, pricing and new channel initiatives to offset these impacts and deliver on our expected growth. The Ingredients, Agribusiness and Related Property division delivered an excellent performance, reporting operating profits of Eur27.6m in a year of dramatic change that regrettably marked the last sugar campaign for Irish Sugar. The new EU sugar regime, which was announced in November 2005, posed an insurmountable challenge to profitable sugar beet growing in Ireland and, therefore, to a competitive sugar industry. The Group responded by delivering an excellent final year of sugar performance, by committing early to exit sugar production and by strongly defending the Group's entitlement to restructuring aid under EU law. A trial date for the judicial review of the Irish Government's decision regarding the allocation of EU aid has been set by the Irish High Court for 1 May 2007. Over-capacity in European malt markets and significant energy price inflation adversely impacted on the performance of Greencore Malt in 2006. However, the anticipated improvement in the malt cycle has now commenced and that, allied to excellent commercial and operational performance across our malt business, will drive a significant profit improvement in this business in the current financial year. During 2006, the Group increased its focus on unlocking the value from its 970 acres of potential development property. In recent months Greencore has submitted proposals for developing its lands at Carlow and Mallow to the relevant County Councils. Carlow Gateway and Mallow West are exciting proposals that, if adopted, will deliver significant investment and substantial job creation, providing approximately 2000 jobs in each town. We look forward to working with the respective Councils and communities over the coming months on the comprehensive development plans for each town. Overall, we are excited about both the progress and momentum within the three core parts of the Group's portfolio. While recognising that the second half of the year is a much more significant contributor to annual Group performance, the Board anticipates that, barring unforeseen circumstances, earnings per share for financial year 2007 will at least match the current market consensus level of 25.6 cent.' E.F. Sullivan Chairman 15 February 2007 For further information, please contact: David Dilger Group Chief Executive +353 1 605 1045 Patrick Coveney Chief Financial Officer +353 1 605 1018 Eoin Tonge Group Capital Markets Director +353 1 605 1036 Billy Murphy or Anne Marie Curran Drury Communications +353 1 260 5000 Rory Godson or Victoria Brough Powerscourt +44 207 236 5615 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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