Revenue at convenience food retailer Greencore rose in the first quarter of its financial year, as the company continued to broaden its product range.
The group said overall revenue rose 7.5 per cent to £474.3 million in the 13 weeks to December 27th 2024, with rising volumes and inflation recovery contributing to the growth. On a like-for-like basis revenue was almost 5 per cent higher.
Volumes were also up, increasing by 2.6 per cent as underlying volume growth and new business helped push sales higher.
“This was delivered despite our customers remaining under significant cost pressure from government driven policy changes and a changing competitive landscape,” Greencore said in a statement.
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Among Greencore’s markets, revenue in food to go categories increased 7.2 per cent to £314.7 million, while reported revenue in other convenience categories was 8.1 per cent higher at £159.6 million. Overall chilled ready meals volumes increased 23.5 per cent.
Greencore highlighted the “unprecedented labour cost challenge” from increases to the national living wage and national insurance increases in the UK budget.
“The nature of our business is labour-intensive, and the group has been working hard to offset this cost. However, given the scale of the challenge, we are also engaging in constructive dialogue with our customers to help mitigate these costs,” Greencore said.
Greencore chief executive Dalton Phillips said the group had a “positive start” to the year.
“I am encouraged by the platform this provides us for the rest of the financial year. Our volume growth of 2.6 per cent in the quarter again outperforms the market and is driven by both underlying volume growth and winning new business. This reflects a combination of the quality of our products, our commitment to innovation and the strength of our relationships with our customers,” he said.
“We continue to make progress against each of our strategic objectives and are well positioned to continue this momentum through FY25.”
The group said it was confident of delivering a full year performance in line with current market expectations. Greencore will report its FY25 first half results on May 27th.
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