Convenience sales help Greencore to 7.2% growth

By Laurence Gibbons

- Last updated on GMT

Convenience has helped boost profits at Greencore
Convenience has helped boost profits at Greencore

Related tags Convenience foods division

Strong convenience sales has helped Greencore achieve a 7.2% boost in revenue to £356M and 6.8% in constant currency, for the 13 weeks to December 25 2015.

The Irish firm’s convenience foods division has continued to do well with recorded revenue of £345.1M – 7.7% higher than the previous year – and 6.8% in constant currency.

In the UK, revenue was 7.9% higher than in the prior year. 

Greencore said in a trading update: “While the overall UK grocery retail market remains challenging, our core chilled categories continue to perform well.

Strong growth and new products

“Our strong growth was driven by the annualisation of prior year business wins together with the impact of new product launches.”

The construction of Greencore’s new £30M food-to-go production facility in Northampton is nearing completion with commissioning on track to commence in the spring, it added.

The site is expected to bring £60M to £100M of additional revenue to the business from existing products and new product development.

The new site is expected to create hundreds of new jobs​ in the area.

Also included in the £30M investment at Northampton were upgrades to existing Greencore buildings at the site.

In the US, reported revenue was 6.5% higher than in the prior year and 1.3% higher in constant currency. 

This revenue was in line with expectations following the closure of the Brockton facility in November and the related further product and customer exits.

US business

The Brockton production facility serviced thousands of stores across all of New England and Pennsylvania; delivering sandwiches, salads, parfaits, snack boxes, quiches, and other items. The site employed around 300 people.

Progress continues to be made on ramping up production capability in the Quonset, Rhode Island facility and the construction in Seattle is progressing to plan, Greencore said.

The ingredients and property division of the business, which now represents less than 5% of group activity, recorded revenues of £10.9M, £0.7M or 6.0% lower on a reported basis and 3.4% higher on a constant currency basis.

Greencore said it remained confident in its ability to deliver performance in line with market expectations.

“The business has had a good start to the year and our major investments in capacity and capability enhancement are proceeding to plan,”​ it added. 

Meanwhile, don’t miss Greencore ceo Patrick Coveney’s strong views​ on the possibility of the UK leaving the EU in this exclusive video interview.

Related topics Chilled foods

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