FDBusiness.com

Glanbia, the global nutrition group, has reported a 7% rise in wholly owned revenue from continuing operations to €2.387 billion (up 9.2% constant currency) for the financial year ended 30 December 2017. The drivers of this revenue growth were a 5.3% improvement in volume, a 0.2% increase in price and a 3.7% contribution from acquisitions. Wholly owned EBITA from continuing operations was €283.2 million, up 3.6% reported (up 5.8% constant currency). Wholly owned EBITA margin from continuing operations was 11.9%, down 30 basis points reported and constant currency.

Glanbia Performance Nutrition delivered revenue growth of 13.7% constant currency (up 11.3% reported) with like-for-like branded sales growth of 6.3% and EBITA of €169.7 million, a 7.0% increase on prior year, constant currency (up 4.8% reported). Glanbia Nutritionals delivered revenue growth of 5.4% constant currency (3.4% reported) and EBITA of €113.5 million, a 4.1% increase on prior year, constant currency (up 2.0% reported) driven by a good performance from Nutritional Solutions.

Glanbia also benefited from a strong result for the year from its Joint Ventures with share of profits pre-exceptionals of €42.8 million – up by €16.8 million, primarily driven by higher dairy markets and volume growth.

Siobhán Talbot, group managing director of Glanbia.

During the year, Glanbia completed the disposal of 60% of its Dairy Ireland segment and related assets to Glanbia Co-operative Society. The disposal generated net cash proceeds of €208.8 million. At the start of 2017, Glanbia acquired Grass Advantage (Amazing Grass) in the US. Amazing Grass has a portfolio of organic and non-GMO plant-based nutrition brands. In March 2017, Glanbia acquired B&F Vastgoed (Body & Fit) in the Netherlands, a leading direct-to-consumer online branded business focused on performance nutrition. The combined consideration for both acquisitions was €168.2 million. The acquisitions delivered €79.6 million of revenue in 2017. Both acquisitions have a strong strategic fit and are enabling Glanbia Performance Nutrition to extend its reach to new consumers.

Siobhán Talbot, group managing director of Glanbia, comments: “I am delighted to announce Glanbia’s eighth year of double-digit earnings growth in 2017. On a pro-forma basis from continuing operations adjusted Earnings Per Share was up 10.2%, constant currency, and wholly owned revenue was up 9.2%, constant currency. Growth was broad based across Glanbia Performance Nutrition (GPN), Glanbia Nutritionals (GN) and Joint Ventures (JVs) with good volume growth across all segments.”

She continues: “The strategic evolution of the group portfolio continued in 2017 with the acquisition of two highly complementary businesses to the GPN portfolio, Amazing Grass and Body & Fit as well as the disposal of 60% of Dairy Ireland and the subsequent creation of the Glanbia Ireland JV. These initiatives demonstrate the ambition of the group to build on its existing strengths, drive future sustainable growth and deliver on our vision to be one of the world’s top performing nutrition companies. Our focus in 2018 will be on volume driven revenue growth across our wholly owned growth platforms of GPN and GN. The outlook for 2018 is positive and I expect Glanbia will deliver between 5% to 8% growth in pro-forma adjusted Earnings Per Share on a constant currency basis. We expect growth to be delivered in the second half of 2018 as comparative dairy dynamics and planned investments will adversely affect performance in the first half of 2018.”