Leading UK speciality bakery manufacturer, Finsbury Food Group has reported that sales grew to £256.2m for the financial year ending 27 June 2015, an increase of 45.8% on prior year.
This result includes organic growth of £10.7m, an increase of 6.1% versus prior year, primarily within Cake.
Following the positive half year trading performance, strong trading has continued in the second half and the group will outperform its current EBITDA and profit expectations.
The Fletchers acquisition, completed at the end of October 2014, contributed £69.3m of additional sales revenue. Consequently the UK Bakery division grew by 52.2%.The acquisition of the assets and business of Johnstones Just Desserts, a supplier of cake to the national coffee shop chains completed on 16 June 2015 and, occurred too late in the year to be material.
The second half performance benefited from the strong growth in sales revenues, together with an earlier than planned delivery of the Fletchers acquisition synergy benefits. This performance was further complemented by capital expenditure, depreciation, debt and associated financing costs all being lower than previously forecast.
The group continues to expect capital expenditure in the year ahead to increase as investment within the Finsbury and Fletchers business continues and the Directors look to maximize the opportunity within Johnstones.
As previously stated, consumer markets remain challenging and the firm anticipate that the Fletchers and Johnstone's acquisitions will drive the group's growth in the new financial year.
The Board believes the larger, more diversified speciality bakery group is a strong multi-channel business, well equipped to deliver growth and improved shareholder value over the coming years.
John Duffy, Chief Executive, commented, 'I am pleased to report the Group's continued strong trading with growth being driven both organically and also through acquisition. Our EBITDA and profit outperformance illustrates that we have the right strategy in place, particularly in the continued challenging market conditions.
'As one of the largest speciality bakery groups in the UK, we believe we are well positioned to continue to deliver against our strategy and are confident that the business, with our latest acquisitions, will drive Group growth and shareholder value.'