Greencore reports 3% fall in full-year profits

Convenience food manufacturer Greencore reported a slight fall in adjusted profits for the full year to 29 September as margins slipped and finance costs rose.

Revenues were up 10% year-on-year at £1.9bn, helped by underlying volume growth, including net new business wins and prices increases as a result passing through significant levels of cost inflation.

Manufactured volumes were up 0.5% which it said was a strong result relative to the wider market.

However, adjusted pre-tax profit was down 2.8% at £58.1m as a result of higher finance costs, while the adjusted operating margin declined 20 basis points to 4.0%.

Chief executive Dalton Philips said he was "encouraged by our FY23 performance and the progress across the business".

"In a challenging market environment, we have stabilised the business, and made good strategic progress. The group delivered above-market volume growth, despite exiting a number of low margin contracts. We also successfully mitigated and recovered the majority of our input cost inflation through effective operational and commercial initiatives."

Looking ahead, Philips said he was "pleased with the start to the year" and remains confident in delivering full-year results within the range of current market expectations.

The stock was down nearly 4% at 97.5p by 0833 GMT.