Greencore Group plc (‘Greencore’ or the ‘Group’), a leading manufacturer of convenience food in the UK, today issues its results for the year ended 25 September 2020.
HIGHLIGHTS1,2
- Group Revenue of £1,264.7m, a reduction of 12.5% impacted by effect of COVID-19 on food to go categories in the second half of FY20
- Adjusted EBITDA of £85.0m, after charging £10.7m of additional operating costs resulting from the Group’s response to COVID-19
- Adjusted Operating Profit of £32.5m and Adjusted EPS of 2.9 pence
- Net Debt (excluding lease liabilities) of £350.5m at 25 September 2020 with Net Debt: EBITDA of 4.4x as measured under financing agreements
- Cash and undrawn committed debt facilities of £232.0m at year end
- Revised financing agreements and amendments on near term covenant conditions secured with the Group’s bank lending syndicate and Private Placement Note holders
- Launching a new sustainability strategy built around three pillars: Sourcing with Integrity, Making with Care, and Feeding with Pride
- As announced on 19 May 2020, the Group will not be proceeding with a final FY20 or an interim FY21 dividend payment
- While the Group anticipates that COVID-19 will continue to have an uncertain impact on its near term trading environment, it is well positioned to take advantage of recovering trading conditions as they occur
- The Group has separately announced today its intention to conduct a non-pre-emptive placing of new ordinary shares of £0.01 each in the capital of Greencore at the placing price (the ‘Placing’). It is intended that the proposed Placing will result in the Group raising gross proceeds of up to £90m as part of the suite of operational and financing measures to protect and support growth in the business
SUMMARY FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE1,2
| FY20 | FY19 | Change | |
| £m | £m | ||
| Group Revenue | 1,264.7 | 1,446.1 | -12.5% |
| Pro Forma Revenue Growth | -14.3% | ||
| Adjusted EBITDA | 85.0 | 142.0 | -40.1% |
| Group Operating Profit | 12.9 | 99.8 | -87.1% |
| Adjusted Operating Profit | 32.5 | 105.5 | -69.2% |
| Adjusted Operating Margin | 2.6% | 7.3% | -470 bps |
| Group (Loss)/Profit Before Tax | (10.8) | 56.4 | nm |
| Adjusted Profit Before Tax | 17.3 | 92.3 | -81.3% |
| Basic EPS (pence) | (2.6) | 19.9 | nm |
| Group Exceptional Items (after tax) | (20.5) | 25.9 | |
| Adjusted EPS (pence) | 2.9 | 16.0 | -81.9% |
| Total proposed dividend per share (pence) | – | 6.20 | |
| Free Cash Flow | (29.7) | 54.9 | -£84.6m |
| Net Debt (excluding lease liabilities) | 350.5 | 288.5 | |
| Net Debt:EBITDA as per financing agreements | 4.4x | 1.8x | |
| Return on Invested Capital (“ROIC”) | 4.1% | 14.4% | |
Commenting on the results, Patrick Coveney, Chief Executive Officer, said:
“This has been an exceptionally challenging year for Greencore, and I am enormously proud of the resilience and adaptability that our colleagues have shown in helping to navigate the business through the toughest trading conditions it has ever seen. Having been designated as ‘key workers’, Greencore colleagues have played an instrumental role in helping to feed the UK, and their health and wellbeing remains our number one priority.
There is a direct correlation between the performance of food to go and the nation’s ability to move around freely. As a result, that part of our business has been significantly impacted by the social restrictions that have been put in place as a result of COVID-19. However, we remain confident that demand for our food to go categories will recover strongly as the effect of COVID-19 recedes, and were encouraged by the uplift in demand that we saw in Q4 as the UK economy slowly reopened.
Throughout the year we have acted quickly and decisively to put in place comprehensive sets of measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on our business. However, in light of the ongoing uncertainty that is being caused by the current lockdown measures, there is a strong rationale in further strengthening our balance sheet. Today’s proposed Placing achieves this.
Despite the ongoing uncertainty, we have still been able to secure new business and extend our product range during FY20, and our other convenience categories have delivered a solid performance. Furthermore, our relationships with our customers are stronger than ever before, having worked in close collaboration with them throughout the pandemic, and they remain firmly committed to the categories in which we operate. As such, notwithstanding the near-term challenges, we are optimistic about the medium-term prospects for Greencore.”
