Finsbury Food Group PLC Trading Statement (5553U)
January 19 2017 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMFIF
RNS Number : 5553U
Finsbury Food Group PLC
19 January 2017
Date: 19 January 2017
On behalf Finsbury Food Group plc ('Finsbury',
of: 'the Company' or 'the Group')
For immediate release
Finsbury Food Group plc
Pre-Close Trading Statement
Finsbury Food Group Plc (AIM: FIF), a leading UK speciality
bakery manufacturer of cake, bread and morning goods for both the
retail and foodservice channels, is today providing an update on
trading for the first half of the current financial year, ended 31
December 2016, prior to entering its close period.
The Board is pleased to report that since the AGM trading update
in November 2016, trading has continued to be solid throughout the
Christmas period and performance is in line with management
expectations following the significant growth achieved in recent
years. Total Group sales revenues were GBP156.6m during the first
half, delivering a flat year on year performance. The UK Bakery
division declined by 2.9%, against a backdrop of UK retail food
market deflation in the period, whilst the Overseas division, the
Group's 50% owned European business, grew by 31.7% continuing to
demonstrate the strengths of our strategic diversification.
The Group continues to benefit from strong cashflow and invested
a record GBP5m in capital projects in the first half to build on
its successful product innovation and importantly continue to
improve efficiency and productivity throughout the Group. The Board
has identified continued investment as a fundamental part of the
Group's long-term competitiveness strategy and it will play an
important role in helping address the current challenges of
sterling induced commodity inflation and planned national living
wage increases. As previously communicated, the scale of the
current cost inflation is such that despite such internal
initiatives, further cost recovery will be required and will become
inflationary in the second half and beyond.
The Board has built the Group into a diverse multi-channel
speciality bakery group. Following the exceptional growth and
diversification over the prior years, the business is well placed
to maintain its position, despite the market conditions. As such,
the Board believes it is well equipped to continue to deliver
growth and improved shareholder value over the coming years.
This announcement contains inside information.
- ENDS -
For further information:
Finsbury Food Group plc www.finsburyfoods.co.uk
John Duffy (Chief Executive) 029 20 357 500
Stephen Boyd (Finance Director)
Cenkos Securities plc
Bobbie Hilliam (Corporate
Finance)
Alex Aylen (Sales)
Redleaf Communications finsbury@redleafpr.com
Rebecca Sanders-Hewett 020 7382 4730
Sarah Fabietti-Dallison
Sam Modlin
Notes to Editors:
-- Finsbury Food Group Plc (AIM: FIF) is a leading UK
manufacturer of cake and bread bakery goods, supplying a broad
range of blue chip customers within both the grocery retail and
'out of home eating' foodservice sectors including major multiples
and leading foodservice providers.
-- Following the acquisition of the Fletchers Group of bakeries,
the Company is one of the largest speciality bakery groups in the
UK with annualised sales in 2016 exceeding GBP300 million.
-- The Company's bakery product range is comprehensive and
includes:
-- Large premium and celebration cakes.
-- Small snacking cake formats such as cake slices and bites.
-- Artisan, healthy lifestyle and organic breads through to
rolls, muffins (sweet and savoury) and morning pastries, all of
which are available both fresh and frozen dependent on customer
channel requirements.
-- The Company is now the second largest manufacturer of ambient
packaged cake (excluding In Store Bakery (ISB)) in the UK, a market
valued at over GBP945m (Source Symphony IRI, 52 w/e 31st December
2016). The annual retail bread and morning goods market has a value
of GBP3.7 billion (source Kantar Worldpanel 52 weeks to 1 January
2017). The UK foodservice bread and morning goods bakery sector is
worth approximately GBP800 million per annum, 70 per cent of which
is in morning goods. The UK foodservice cake and sweet treat bakery
sector is worth approximately GBP600m per annum.
-- The Company comprises a UK Bakery division and an Overseas
division:
-- UK Bakery has manufacturing sites in Cardiff, East Kilbride,
Hamilton, Twechar, Salisbury, Sheffield, London and Manchester.
-- The overseas sector comprise, the Company's 50% owned Company
Lightbody Stretz Ltd, which supplies and distributes the Group's UK
manufactured products and third party products, primarily to
Europe.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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