Glanbia revenues grow by 8.4% as Watson deal completes

Glanbia has reported an 8.4% growth in revenues for the first three months of the year, boosted by a 9.7% contribution from acquisitions in a quarter in which it completed the purchase of US premix producer Watson.

The Irish company announced in February that it would buy Watson – which produces a range of bakery ingredients as well as edible film and material conditioning solutions for the nutrition, food and beverages industries.

Volume increases provided a 1.4% contribution to revenue growth, with Glanbia Nutritionals performing particularly well. The unit delivered strong revenue growth of 10.4% in the first three months of 2019, driven by a volume increase of 11.2% and a contribution from the Watson acquisition of 1.6%, offset by a price decline of 2.4%.

The group’s Nutritional Solutions unit increased revenue by 22.1% this period, driven by volume growth of 16.1%, a price increase of 0.7% and the Watson acquisition delivering 5.3%. Nutritional Solutions is a leading provider of customised nutrient premixes, advanced-technology protein solutions, functional beverages and flavours with a diverse product portfolio and customers around the world.

Glanbia Performance Nutrition (‘GPN’) delivered revenue growth in the first three months amounting to 4.9%, driven by the SlimFast acquisition, which delivered sufficient growth to offset both a volume decline of 16.5% and a price decline of 3.4%.

The SlimFast acquisition is performing strongly, Glanbia said, with the integration of the business continuing as planned. Growth was driven by the core range and particularly strong consumer demand for recent innovations in the UK and US, in particular the Keto range.

And in US cheese, revenue increased by 5.5% in the period, driven by volume growth of 9.1% primarily due to capacity expansion in the SwC JV plant completed last year.

Siobhán Talbot, group managing director at Glanbia, said: “Glanbia grew revenues by 8.4%, constant currency, in the first quarter of 2019 underpinned by growth in both Glanbia Nutritionals and Glanbia Performance Nutrition in the period. Glanbia Nutritionals was the main driver of revenue growth with a good performance in particular from the Nutritional Solutions business. Glanbia Performance Nutrition revenue growth in the first quarter was driven by a strong performance from the recently acquired SlimFast brand. Our strategy remains on track and we reiterate our full year guidance of 5-8% growth in adjusted earnings per share, constant currency, in 2019, with growth to be delivered in the second half of the year.”