FDBusiness.com

Glanbia, the global nutrition group, has reported a 4.5% increase (+2.3% at constant currency) in revenue to €1.837 billion for its wholly-owned businesses for the six month period ended 4 July 2020. The increase was fuelled by growth in Glanbia Nutritionals (GN) which more than offset declines in Glanbia Performance Nutrition (GPN). Wholly-owned EBITA pre-exceptional was €85.0 million, down 25.4% at constant currency (down 23.7% reported).

Wholly-owned EBITA margins from operations were 4.6%, down 170 basis points on a constant currency and reported basis. The decline in wholly-owned EBITA and margin arose from the impact of Covid-19 on the second quarter performance of GPN where lower revenue drove significant negative operating leverage for the period.

Glanbia has just announced an agreement to acquire Foodarom, a specialist flavours solutions business based in Canada, for C$60 million to strengthen its GN business.

Siobhan Talbot, group managing director of Glanbia, comments: “In my entire career at Glanbia, I have never been prouder of my colleagues, whose response to the extraordinary challenges of 2020 have been exemplary. I am hugely appreciative of the agility, dedication and commitment that Glanbia employees and particularly our frontline workers, suppliers, and customer partners showed in quickly adopting new radical ways of working and maintaining operations throughout the pandemic. When the crisis emerged we set three priorities; to protect our people, to continue food supply and to maintain our strong financial position. Since then, our business continuity planning teams have managed health and safety rigorously, we have altered our operational plans where needed and executed those plans very well and our balance sheet strength has improved.”

She continues: “Our compelling belief is that consumers’ increasing focus on health and wellbeing, as well as greater importance on trust and quality, positions Glanbia well for the future, given our core purpose of the delivery of better nutrition via our brands and ingredient solutions. While navigating Covid-19 we have maintained a strategic focus across the group; we have broadened the ambition within the transformation project in GPN and we have continued to scale our capabilities in GN as demonstrated by the acquisition of Foodarom. We continue to selectively pursue opportunities which meet our strategic and financial criteria. While the short term outlook remains uncertain, the board is confident that Glanbia has the portfolio, the consumer insight and the operational expertise to succeed in this new environment.”

Glanbia withdrew its 2020 full year financial guidance in April 2020 due to the uncertainty of duration and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.