Associated British Foods Plc (ABF.L,ASBFY.PK) Thursday reported 10 percent increase in revenues for the 16-week period ended January 5, driven by 'outstanding' sales performance from Primark. On a constant currency basis, revenues climbed 13 percent.
The company also said year-to-date, trading was ahead of its expectations, mainly due to the performance of Primark, with the rest of the group performing in line. It currently expects to make further progress in adjusted operating profit for the full year, with improvement heavily weighted towards the first half.
In an interim management statement, the company said its Sugar segment generated revenues, which is up 12 percent from last year. In the UK, revenues in the period were ahead of last year, helped by higher sales volumes and marginal increase in sugar prices.
In Retail segment, sales at Primark climbed 25 percent and was up 27 percent at constant currency. The sales were driven by strong like-for-like sales growth, a substantial increase in retail selling space and superior sales densities in the larger new stores, the company said.
Revenues from Agriculture improved 3 percent from a year ago. Grocery and Ingredients segment revenues remained unchanged from last year.
The Group continues to expect full-year result for AB Sugar to be lower than last year but anticipates this will be more than offset by growth at Primark and some recovery in Grocery.
During the period, the company opened 14 new stores in the period, six in Spain, four in the UK, one each in Germany and the Netherlands and its first two stores in Austria. ABF.L is currently trading at 1,633 pence, up 77 pence or 4.95 percent, on a volume of 618,324 shares on the LSE.
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