5 days ago
Glanbia increases full-year earnings guidance despite slump in profit
Nutritionals group
Glanbia
has increased its earnings forecast for the year while appointing a new chairman.
The company, which has been struggling to contend with a spike in the cost of whey proteins, a key input, said headline revenue for the first six months of the year increased by 6 per cent to $1.9 billion.
Profits, however, were down by 7.5 per cent to $132 million.
The company also announced the sale of its Dutch e-commerce platform Body&Fit for an undisclosed sum while noting there was 'no news yet' on the planned sale of its underperforming dieting brand SlimFast.
READ MORE
The Dublin-listed group upgraded its full-year earnings guidance to 130-133 cent per share, up from 124-130 cent, as a result of what it described as 'increased revenue momentum' in the second quarter across its performance nutrition (PN) division.
The PN element of the business has been the star performer n recent years but it has been hit by a jump in the cost of whey.
The company unveiled Paul Duffy, a former chairman and chief executive of Pernod Ricard North America, as chair designate to replace Donal Gaynor who is due to step down from the role at the end of the year.
'Today's results reflect a first half of significant execution and progress as we generated 6 per cent revenue growth in the period, underpinned by strong growth in health & nutrition (H&N) and dairy nutrition (DN) and a sequential improvement in performance nutrition through the period as the group navigated significant macroeconomic volatility,' chief executive Hugh McGuire said.
'We are today upgrading our full year adjusted EPS guidance to 130 to 133 cent as a result of increased revenue momentum in PN and improved margins in H&N,' he said.
'The category trends remain positive, and we expect to see continued improvement in volumes across PN in the second half of the year with continued momentum in H&N and DN,' he said.
