‘Disappointing year’ for Aryzta shareholders
Swiss-Irish food group Aryzta said on Monday that revenues in the year to July 31st 2015 rose by 12.6 per cent to € 3.8bn.
Across Europe, revenues increased 3.8 per cent to € 1.6bn, while in North America, revenues rose by 22.4 per cent €1.9bn, and by 4.7 per cent in the rest of the world region to €231m.
Earnings (EBITA) at group level rose by 5.7 per cent to € 514m, but declined by 7.9 per cent in Europe to €212m.
Aryzta chief executive officer Owen Killian said that the group is “ now fully focused on speciality food, with the divestment of our Origin investment and reinvestment in Picard”.
Noting that 2015 was a “ disappointing year for shareholders as underlying revenue growth failed to materialise, resulting in negative operating leverage,” Mr Killian said that the group’s focus is now on delivering the underlying revenue growth potential of the business. This is expected to “generate a tenfold expansion in free cash generation in FY 2016 to €200m+ and building further thereafter”.
“We expect to achieve underlying fully diluted EPS in the range of 365- 385 cent for FY 2016,” Mr Killian said.
