Glanbia has confirmed that it will sell the SlimFast brand as it released its preliminary financial results for 2024 today (Wednesday, February 26).

Glanbia said it delivered a "strong financial and operating performance" in 2024.

Group revenue was $3,839.7 million (2023: $3,629.8 million), up 5.8% on a constant currency basis.

Group EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) - before "exceptional items" - was $551.3 million (2023: $493.4 million), up 11.8% on a constant currency basis.

Group pre-exceptional profit after tax stood at $310.3 million (2023: $298.1 million), up 4.1% on a constant currency basis.

Adjusted EPS (earnings per share) was 140.03 US cent (2023: 131.37 US cent), up 6.8% constant currency.

The group ended the year with an operating cash flow of $485.1 million (2023: $445.9 million), which represents an operating cash flow conversion of 88% (2023: 90.4%).

At year end, the group had a net debt position of $436 million (2023: $248.7 million) with the increase largely driven by the acquisition of Flavor Producers, which closed in the second quarter of 2024.

Net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 0.81 times (2023: 0.5 times). At year end, the group had committed debt facilities of $1.3 billion (2023: $1.3 billion) with a weighted average maturity of 3.8 years (2023: 4.7 years).

Glanbia’s total investment in capital expenditure (tangible and intangible assets) was $87.1 million in 2024 (2023: $74.2 million). Strategic investment totalled $58.4 million and included capacity enhancement, business integrations, and IT (information technology) investments, the business said.

Total capital expenditure for 2025 is expected to be $80 million to $90 million.

The total dividend for the year will be 38.97c/share, a 10% increase on the prior year. This total dividend represents a payout ratio of 30.1% of 2024 adjusted EPS, which is within the company’s target payout ratio of 25% to 35%. The final dividend will be paid on May 2, 2025.

During the year, Glanbia purchased and cancelled 6.2 million ordinary shares, representing 2.4% of the total issued ordinary shares at the beginning of 2024, at a total cost of approximately €102 million (2023: €100 million).

The board approved a €50 million share buyback programme that was announced on November 6, 2024, and formally commenced on December 16, 2024. Today, the group is announcing that the board has approved a further €100 million share buyback in 2025 as part of its capital allocation policy.

As announced on November 6, 2024, Glanbia has commenced a group-wide, cost-reducing "transformation programme" to drive efficiencies across the group’s new operating model and support the next phase of growth through three focused divisions: Performance Nutrition; Health & Nutrition; and Dairy Nutrition.

This programme will focus on four areas:

Operating model optimisation;
Unlocking supply chain efficiencies;
Accelerating digital transformation;
Ongoing portfolio evaluation.

As part of the portfolio evaluation, the group has evaluated the role of its direct-to-consumer e-commerce business Body & Fit, and its weight management brand SlimFast, making the decision to exit both businesses.

Commenting on these financial results and the impending sale of SlimFast, Hugh McGuire, chief executive officer (CEO) of SlimFast said: "On behalf of the Glanbia team, I am pleased to report that the Group delivered a strong performance in 2024.

"Optimum Nutrition and Isopure, our protein growth brands, delivered double digit volume growth in the year and we saw good growth across our premix and protein solutions businesses within Nutritional Solutions," McGuire added.

"We have commenced a multi-year group-wide transformation programme to drive efficiencies and support the next phase of growth. This includes setting up a new operating model, delivering productivity initiatives, and further optimising our portfolio, targeting annual cost savings of at least $50 million by 2027," he added.

The Glanbia CEO said: "Looking ahead to 2025, we will focus on continuing to drive performance across our portfolio of better nutrition brands and ingredients, while navigating short-term input cost inflation. In 2025, we expect adjusted EPS to be in the range of 124c and 130c."