Associated British Foods Plc (ABF.L, ASBFY.PK) Thursday reported an 11 percent increase in revenues for the 40 weeks ended June 23 and said it remains on track to deliver substantial growth in both adjusted operating profit and adjusted earnings per share for the full year.
In an interim management statement, the company noted that on a constant currency basis, year-to-date revenue was up 12 percent from last year due to strengthening of sterling.
In its Sugar business, revenues surged 28 percent. Agriculture segment grew revenues by 15 percent from a year ago. In the 40-week period, Retail revenues were up 14 percent.
The company stated that its discount retailer Primark's strong revenue momentum continued in the quarter with a year-to-date sales increase of 16 percent at constant currency, driven by higher retail selling space and further like-for-like sales growth. It sees operating margin improvement in the second half due to lower input costs.
For the 16-week period ended June 23, total Group revenues improved 13 percent from the same period last year, with Sugar revenues surging 54 percent helped by a strong commercial environment in Europe and to a lesser degree Africa. In China, sugar volumes increased, but profit is expected to be considerably lower due to weaker selling prices, the company said.
As at June 23, the company is trading from 237 stores with 8 million square feet of selling space.
ABF.L is currently trading at 1,259 pence, down 8 pence or 0.63 percent, on a volume of 568 thousand shares on the LSE.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com