Finsbury Food Group, a leading UK speciality bakery manufacturer of cake, bread and morning goods for both the retail and foodservice channels, has announced its preliminary results for the financial year ended 1 July 2017.
The firm also revealed it has acquired Welsh free-from bakery manufacturer Ultrapharm in a £17m deal this month, expanding the company’s presence in the UK’s growing free-from segment.
The group has delivered resilient UK sales in a deflationary market, with the impact of UK retail food market deflation in the period offset by the impact of innovation in cake and growth in speciality bakery ranges.
Group revenue of £314.3m for the 52 weeks to the beginning of July was flat on a like-for-like basis, (2016: £319.7m 53 weeks, £313.5m 52 weeks).
Adjusted operating profit of £17.4m was up 4.2% on a like-for-like basis, (2016: £17.1m 53 weeks, £16.7m 52 weeks), with adjusted operating profit margin of 5.5% (2016: 5.3%).
Adjusted pre-tax profit of £16.6m was up 5.6% on a like-for-like basis (2016: £16.0m 53 weeks, £15.7m 52 weeks) and pre-tax profits of £13.0m were up from £11.8m.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose by 2.7% to £24.9m (2016: £24.7m 53 weeks, £24.3m 52 weeks); EBITDA of £21.0m (2016: £20.4m).
Non-executive chairman Peter Baker said, 'We continue to make good progress in line with our stated aim of becoming a leading speciality bakery group in the UK.
'We have delivered a resilient performance despite the changing consumer and customer dynamics and the challenging economic environment for food manufacturers across the industry which, has made the journey somewhat slower and harder than expected.
'The Board has reviewed the Group's strategy in the light of these external changes and has concluded that there is no need for any radical change of direction and we still firmly believe we are set on the right path to achieve our goal.
'We will continue to work hard to run our existing businesses as efficiently and effectively as possible whilst investing for the future and keeping a solid balance sheet that can be utilised, as and when the right opportunities present themselves.'