• Q1 sales and profits up
  • Benecol deal helps growth
  • CEO flags weakness in UK cereal, snacks

Finnish food group Raisio today (6 May) booked an increase in first-quarter sales and earnings, in part helped by its acquisition of Benecol in three European markets last November.

The company posted a 5% rise in net sales to EUR122.5m (US$139m) for the three months to the end of March. The higher sales drove a 77.8% jump in Raisio's EBIT to EUR9.6m.

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"The EBIT improvement was expected and it confirmed that Raisio is back on a growth trend," CEO Matti Rihko said. "The group’s EBIT was primarily improved by the integration of Benecol consumer product business into Raisio and good sales development at the beginning of the year."

In November, Raisio announced a deal to buy the Benecol business in the UK, Ireland and Belgium from affiliates of Johnson & Johnson for EUR88.4m.

However, Rihko admitted the company's UK cereal and snack bar units had "under-performed" during the quarter.

First-quarter net profit stood at EUR7.5m, against EUR2.7m after the first three months of 2014.

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