Glanbia has upgraded its full year revenue guidance after reporting "strong third quarter momentum" in its third quarter (Q3) interim management statement for the nine-month period ending on October 4.

Group nine-month like-for-like revenue grew by 3.3% (overall revenue up 1.7%) with strong growth in the third quarter across all segments, the business said.

The main drivers of the revenue increase were a volume increase of 2.6%, a price increase of 0.7% and an increase of 0.9% from the net impact of acquisitions and disposals.

The Performance Nutrition (PN) division like-for-like revenue increased by 2.5%, excluding SlimFast and Body & Fit.

The division also saw double-digit volume growth across Optimum Nutrition and Isopure in the third quarter, led predominantly by strong category growth, new distribution and innovation.

PN Americas like-for-like revenue, excluding the impact of Slimfast, declined by 0.9% in the first nine months. However, PN Americas delivered revenue growth of 9.6% in the third quarter.

PN International like-for-like revenue, excluding Slimfast and Body & Fit, increased by 8.8%, driven by volume and pricing growth across priority growth markets, Glanbia reported.

Optimum Nutrition like-for-like revenue grew by 4.6% in the period (up 14.3% in the third quarter), showing sequential improvement driven by strong volume growth, according to Glanbia.

Optimum Nutrition saw accelerating US consumption growth of 8.8%, and the 'healthy lifestyle' portfolio delivered improved US consumption growth of 6.8%.

The Health & Nutrition (H&N) division like-for-like revenue grew by 6.1%, driven by strong volume growth, with overall revenue of 11.5%, driven by a 6.9% increase in volume, a 0.8% decrease in price, and an increase of 7.6% from the impact of the Flavor Producers and Sweetmix acquisitions.

Volume growth was driven by a strong performance in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and the ASPAC (Asia Pacific) regions, with continued momentum in key end-use markets, Glanbia said.

The price decline was driven by certain pass through pricing with customers.

For Dairy Nutrition (DN), like-for-like revenue also grew by 6.1%, driven by strong dairy markets.

€197 million was returned to Glanbia plc shareholders via share buybacks, the business said. This involved the repurchasing and cancelling of 15,047,420 ordinary shares, at an average price of €13.10.

Glanbia also saw "continued execution across strategic initiatives" including the acquisition of Sweetmix in H&N and completion of the sale of SlimFast and Body & Fit in PN.

Glanbia's net debt as at October 4 was $718.5 million, an increase of $98.8 million versus the net debt position at the end of Q3 2024. The increase mainly relates to the share buybacks and the acquisition of Sweetmix.

At the end of Q3 this year the group had committed debt facilities of $1.4 billion.

Guidance

In light of these results, Glanbia said it is upgrading its full year like-for-like revenue guidance for PN to 3% to 4% (previously 2% to 3%).

Full year adjusted earnings per share (EPS) is now expected to be at the upper end of the previous guidance of 130 US cent to 133 US cent.

Commenting on the results, Glanbia chief executive officer (CEO) Hugh McGuire said: "I am pleased to report Glanbia delivered a good performance during the period, delivering group like-for-like revenue across our portfolio of better nutrition brands and ingredients.

"We continue to progress our group-wide transformation programme and completed the sale of non-core brands, SlimFast and Body & Fit, as well as the acquisition of Sweetmix in Brazil within our H&N division," McGuire added.