Greencore has said it is confident it can deliver annual earnings in line with market expectations after posting higher sales for the third quarter of its financial year.
The Ireland-based sandwich maker said a “buoyant” food-to-go market in the UK contributed to its sales increasing to GBP326.4m (US$553.6m) for the period ended 27 June, up 7.5% on a like-for-like basis.
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In the UK, Greencore’s like-for-like sales were up 10.1%. Greencore said its prepared meals and grocery divisions in the UK showed “modest improvement in revenue growth trajectory versus H1”. The company’s ready meals business is recovering after it, along with much of the sector, saw sales suffer in the wake of last year’s horsemeat contamination saga.
In the US, constant-currency revenue was 16.9% higher than in the prior year, including a contribution from Lettieri’s, a supplier Greencore acquired earlier this year. Following the planned exit of a set of non-core product lines during the period, like-for-like growth was 4%.
Sales from Greencore’s ingredients and property arm, now 5% of its business, fell year-on-year.
The company said it was confident it could post annual adjusted earnings per share in line with the market’s expectations.
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By GlobalDataShore Capital analyst Darren Shirley said the stockbroker remained “comfortable with our expectations” and added there was potential for “US sales momentum to pick up in Q4” with the start of shipments from Greencore’s Jacksonville facility in the US.
For the year-to-date, Greencore reported a like-for-like sales increase of 8.5% to GBP946.2m.
