FDBusiness.com

Glanbia, the Irish and global nutritional solutions and cheese group, increased revenue by 4.8% to Eur2.9 billion and pro forma group EBITA by 9.4% to Eur198.8 million for the year ended 29 December 2012. Growth was driven by Global Nutritionals where like for like revenue grew 20% reflecting positive markets and strong operational performances in each of the three business units.

US Cheese & Global Nutritionals revenue increased by 11.0% to Eur1.46 billion. US Cheese & Global Nutritionals is the largest segment within Glanbia, and represented 51% of pro forma total group revenue in 2012 and 72% of pro forma total group EBITA.

Revenue at Dairy Ireland, the second major part of the group, increased revenue by 2.4% to Eur631.0 million during 2012.

Total group EBITA margin grew by 30 basis points to 6.9%, as margin growth within the US Cheese & Global Nutritionals segment more than offset a decline in margins in Dairy Ireland and in Joint Ventures and Associates.

During the year, Glanbia restructured its Irish dairy processing business, reducing its majority shareholder ownership to 41.3% to facilitate further international growth. This entailed forming a joint venture, Glanbia Ingredients Ireland, with Glanbia Co-operative Society, which is the main shareholder in Glanbia. Part of this change involves Glanbia Co-operative Society reducing its stake in Glanbia from from 51.4% to 41.4%.

Glanbia undertook a significant programme of investment in capital projects and acquisitions in 2012 amounting to Eur115 million. This included the Eur45 million acquisition of Aseptic Solutions in the US to enhance Global Nutritionals’ Ingredient Technologies; the opening of a state-of-the-art Customised Premix Solutions plant in Europe; capacity expansion in Performance Nutrition and a new cheese innovation centre in Idaho in the US. The return on capital employed achieved by the group increased by 130 basis points to 14.1%.

John Moloney, group managing director of Glanbia, comments: “The group delivered strong organic revenue growth and a 22.1% increase in adjusted earnings per share; the third consecutive year of double digit progression. We also achieved a landmark agreement with our majority shareholder, Glanbia Co-operative Society, which restructured our Irish dairy processing business from a wholly owned operation to an associate.”

He continues: “The prospects for 2013 are good, although we remain cautious given the global environment. We expect adjusted earnings per share growth, on a constant currency basis, of between 8% and 10% for the full year from a base of 51.02 cents. The Irish dairy processing transaction facilitates a concentrated focus on our international growth and the longer-term prospects for Glanbia are very positive. We are in a stronger position than ever to drive the business forward and capitalise on our competitive advantage in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer nutritional products and solutions.”