Premium Brands Holdings, the Canada-based food group, has booked higher nine-month sales and earnings, with its top-line growth coming organically and from recent acquisitions.
The company posted earnings of CAD48.8m (US$36.1m) for the 39 weeks to 24 September, compared to CAD3m a year ago. Premium Brands’ profits in the first nine months of 2015 were affected by items including a write-down on deferred income tax assets and plant start-up costs.
On an adjusted basis, Premium Brands’ earnings stood at CAD50.2m in the first nine months of the company’s 2016 financial year, up from CAD30.7m a year earlier. The group reported adjusted EBITDA of CAD109.2m, versus CAD80.1m a year earlier.
Nine-month revenue reached CAD1.32bn, compared to CAD1.08bn in the corresponding period a year ago on the back of organic growth and the acquisitions of Isernio’s Sausage and Expresco Foods in 2015. Premium Brands booked “record” third-quarter revenue of CAD481m .
Reflecting on the third-quarter results, president and CEO George Paleologou said: “While the improvement in our results was generated broadly across our portfolio of businesses, a key driver was the investments we have made internally and in acquisitions over the last three years. These initiatives, many of which were based on ten-year-plus investment horizons, are now generating their expected returns.
“”Over the past couple of months, we also completed two acquisitions. We purchased Seattle-based Fletcher’s U.S. at the end of the third quarter and more recently Toronto-based Belmont Meats. Looking forward, we expect to complete more accretive transactions in the relatively near future based on a robust acquisition pipeline and leveraging our strong financial position.”
