Our 2018/19 Preliminary Results for the 52 weeks ending 30 March 2019
Financial Headlines:
– Full year revenue up +0.6%; Q4 revenue up +3.1%
– Trading profit growth of +4.5% to £128.5m
– Adjusted profit before tax up +12.1% to £88.0m
– Statutory loss before tax (£42.7m); due to GMP pensions recognition and impairment of – intangible assets
– Statutory loss after tax (£33.8m)
– Net debt £469.9m; a £26.5m reduction on prior year
– Net debt/EBITDA reduced to 3.2x
– Combined pensions surplus £373.1m (31 March 2018: £317.0m)
Strategic & operational headlines:
– Mr Kipling revenue growth of +12% following brand relaunch in the UK
– Strong performances from Ambrosia, Batchelors, Sharwood’s and Soba
– New product innovation remains core to delivery of growth agenda – launch of new health brand ‘Plantastic’
– International business down (12.5%) impacted by Cadbury cake overstocks and lower export distributor volumes
– Logistics transformation programme now complete and performance returned to normal
– Second successive year of Trading profit & Adjusted earnings growth and Net debt reduction
– Strategic review remains ongoing; update to follow in due course
Alastair Murray, Acting Chief Executive Officer: “Premier Foods has delivered consistent progress over the last two years, growing Revenue, Trading profit, Adjusted earnings and reducing Net debt. In the last year, Mr Kipling, our largest brand, grew +12% following its successful brand relaunch in the UK and in addition Ambrosia, Batchelors, Sharwood’s and Soba also displayed healthy growth. While we saw a decline in International revenue and experienced significant operational challenges with the final phase of our logistics transformation programme, our improved structural resilience still resulted in us growing Trading profit by 4.5%.”
“This year we plan to increase investment in both capital projects and consumer marketing, with up to five of our biggest brands expected to benefit from TV advertising. We have plans to launch an exciting new brand, ‘Plantastic’, using plant- based ingredients, in response to current consumer trends and we expect our International business to return to double digit growth in the coming year. While the first half of FY19/20 is expected to be slower than last year, reflecting the timing of marketing investment, we expect to make further progress over the next twelve months thanks to our continuing pipeline of new product innovation and strong customer relationships. We remain focused on reducing our levels of Net debt and expect to deliver a similar level of debt paydown in the coming year.”