Glanbia to capitalise on growth market strengths after 'strong' 2012

By Mark ASTLEY

- Last updated on GMT

Glanbia to capitalise on growth market strengths after 'strong' 2012
A “strong” financial performance in 2012 has left Glanbia is a “stronger position” to capitalise on its competitive advantage in growth markets, the Irish dairy processor has claimed.

The Kilkenny-based cheese and dairy nutritionals manufacturer reported revenue of €2.88bn on a constant currency basis for the twelve months ended 29 December 2012 – a 4.8% year-on-year increase. EBITDA increased 9.4% to €198.8m.

The firm has attributed its performance in-part to its Global Nutritionals business, which recorded a 20% like-for-like increase in revenue.

“Glanbia delivered a strong financial performance in 2012 as continued momentum in Global Nutritionals drove a third consecutive year of good organic revenue and earnings growth,”​ said the company.

“Competitive advantage” in B2B and B2C

Alongside its financial performance, Glanbia completed a “landmark agreement”​ with its majority shareholder, Glanbia Co-operative Society. The agreement saw Glanbia dispose of a 60% stake in of its Dairy Ingredients Ireland.

According to Glanbia, the transaction will facilitate the expansion of its dairy processing capabilities in Ireland in advance of the European Union (EU) milk quota abolition in April 2015.

Glanbia managing director, John Maloney, said that at as result of this transaction 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,”​ he said.

Glanbia also made a number of investments in 2012, totalling €115m. These included the €45m acquisition of Aseptic Solutions in the US, the establishment of a new plant in Europe, a performance nutrition capacity expansion, and a new cheese innovation centre in Idaho.

“There are some headwinds with an uncertain global economic environment and challenging Irish retail environment, but the Group is well positioned to maintain its growth momentum. We are in a stronger position than ever to capitalise on the competitive advantages we have in high growth markets,” ​said the company.

US cheese and global nutritionals “focus”

Glanbia's main focus in 2013 will “relate primarily”​ to its US cheese and global nutritionals businesses, the company added.

These plans include driving organic growth in global nutritional, further expansion of its performance nutrition and customised premix solutions interests in international markets, and enhanced commercialisation of cheese innovation through its new centre in the US.

“Our focus in 2013/2014 will be to refresh the Group’s strategy so that we prioritise growth opportunities in terms of a long-term plan and focus our investment on the areas of highest potential growth and returns,”​ said the company.

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