In the 13-week trading period up to December 29, 2017, Greencore Group plc recorded revenue of £640.5 million (€725.67 million).

This represented an increase of 53.6% on a reported basis, while pro forma revenue grew by 7.2% in the quarter, figures show.

Greencore is an international producer of convenience foods with operations in the UK and the US. Headquartered in Dublin, it employs approximately 16,000 people in 31 manufacturing facilities across the UK and the US.

On average, it manufactures around 1.5 billion sandwiches, over 600 million salad and lunch kits, and 140 million ready-meals every year.

Convenience Foods UK and Ireland

According to financial reports, the Convenience Foods UK and Ireland division reported revenue growth of 9.2% to £385.4 million (€436.65 million) during the quarter. Pro forma revenue grew by 8.7% in the quarter.

The strong growth momentum was again driven by the ‘Food-to-Go’ business, where reported revenue grew by 12.2% and pro forma revenue grew by 11.4%, Greencore explained.

This reflects both positive growth in the underlying market, as well as the incremental impact of the previously announced business wins with several of the Group’s largest customers, it added.

Reported revenue in the other parts of the division grew by 5.7% during the quarter, and by 5.5% on a pro forma basis.

Convenience Foods US

The acquisition of Peacock Foods at the end of December 2016 helped drive revenue growth of 297% to £255.1 million during the quarter in the Convenience Foods US division.

On a pro forma basis, revenue growth was 5.1% – underpinned by volume growth of approximately 7%, figures show.

Commercial activity with core consumer packaged goods (CPG) customers was encouraging, with strong underlying trading as a result of category growth and previously-announced business wins. The broader commercial pipeline is also developing well.

“The group has intensified its focus on enhancing network efficiencies given the shape of the current and emerging commercial pipeline, particularly within some parts of the group’s original network where capacity utilisation remains low,” the report added.

As anticipated, the trajectory of the group’s capital spend continued to reduce in the first quarter. In addition, in December the group extended the maturity of its $249 million committed bank facility by one year to December 2022, increasing the weighted average maturity of debt from 4.1 years to 4.4 years.

Outlook

The group anticipates delivering a year of strong growth in fiscal year 2018.

It claims to be well positioned to drive improved profitability, cash flow and returns over the medium term.

Greencore will report its fiscal year 2018 interim results on May 22, 2018.