Glanbia reports strong first-half year results
Glanbia has reported its first-half performance for the six months to July 2 as “strong” boosted by its Performance Nutrition division.
The Irish dairy group increased its revenues by 2% to €1.44bn, an increase of 0.4%. Earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) for the whole business was €157.4M, up 13.7% on the prior half-year.
There was a strong performance from Glanbia Performance Nutrition (GPN) with EBITA of €81.7M, a 35% increase on previous half-year.
The company said that Glanbia Nutritionals delivered a satisfactory result, with EBITA of €58M.
Meanwhile, Dairy Ireland reported in-line with expectations with EBITA of €17.7M, a 1.1% increase on prior half year.
Investment
During the six-month period, Glanbia invested €41.7M, of which €27.8M was a strategic investment, reflecting the on-going focus on the organic growth of the business.
The company had undertaken a number of key strategic projects in ingredients processing technologies at the Glanbia Nutritionals sites in Idaho and California in the US.
Glanbia reiterated its guidance for 2016 of 8% to 10% growth in adjusted earnings per share.
GPN main driver in 2016
GPN is expected to be the main driver of 2016 earnings per share growth, the company revealed. It expected Glanbia Nutritionals to deliver modest EBITA improvement compared with last year.
Glanbia delivered a strong performance in the first six months of 2016 driven by GPN,” said group md Siobhán Talbot. “Total group earnings before interest, tax and amortisation for the half year grew by over 11%.
“Sales of Performance Nutrition brands and value-added nutritional ingredients showed good growth in the first half of 2016 delivering on our vision to be a leading nutrition business.
“Global dairy markets remain weak and continue to be a challenge for parts of the business, however, the diversity of the Glanbia portfolio has enabled us to navigate this and we reiterate guidance for the full-year of adjusted earnings per share growth of 8% to 10% on a constant currency basis.”
In February, Glanbia reported double-digit growth for the sixth consecutive year. Earnings before interest tax, depreciation and amortisation was up 10.5% to €271M (£214M) for the 52 weeks to January 2, 2016.
