Premier Foods: FY 2020-2021 Preliminary Results

London / UK. (pf) British Premier Foods PLC released its preliminary results for the 53 weeks ending 03 April 2021. Chief Executive Officer Alex Whitehouse: «This has been an outstanding year for the business with very strong financial metrics across the board. We have reduced our leverage to 1.9x Ebitda, repaid GBP 190 million of our Floating Rate Bonds saving approximately GBP 10 million in interest costs and entered into a transformational new pensions agreement. As a result, we are pleased to be reinstating dividend payments for the first time in 13 years. We have also just completed the refinancing of a new Revolving Credit facility with a refreshed bank group, extending maturity to at least 2024, and are today announcing the launch of a new Fixed Rate Bond.»

FY 2020-2021 Preliminary Headlines

• Branded revenue up +13.6 percent in full year and ahead +7.0 percent in Q4
• Trading profit increased +11.9 percent to GBP 148.3 million after increased marketing investment and incremental Covid costs
• Net debt/Ebitda, (pre-IFRS 16) reduced to 1.9x, the Group’s lowest ever leverage
• Repaid GBP 190 million Floating rate notes in FY 2020-2021 reducing interest costs by approximately GBP 10 million p.a.; plus ratings agency upgrades
• Combined pensions surplus of GBP 539.9 million
• New RCF facility to 2024 and launching offer of new GBP 300 million 5 year Senior Secured Fixed Rate Notes
• Proposed final dividend of 1.0 pence per share; reinstated for first time in thirteen years

Alex Whitehouse: «Throughout the year, we continued to drive our branded growth model, launching a series of new product ranges, including many healthy options such as Sharwood’s low sugar stir fry sauces and increasing marketing investment with six of our major brands benefitting from TV advertising. This, along with a robust performance from our supply chain, ensured we delivered growth ahead of the market. Sales of our brands online more than doubled and our continued focus on this channel led to further market share gains. In overseas markets we are now clearly seeing the benefits of last year’s change in strategy with double digit growth in each quarter and 23 percent in the full year.

«We enter this year in a strong position, with the benefit of an expanded consumer base, further TV advertising for our brands and a substantial pipeline of new products planned. We are confident in our Trading profit expectations for the full year and we expect adjusted PBT to benefit from lower financing costs. As we look to the future, with a transformed business in a demonstrably much stronger financial position, we will continue to move forward at pace and with rigour, applying our brand building skills to expand the business. We will do this through entering new categories in the UK, scaling up our overseas businesses and exploring the opportunity for appropriate bolt on acquisitions.

«Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank our colleagues who have shown incredible resilience and commitment, keeping our operations running, ensuring we were able to keep food supplies flowing to our customers and taking all the necessary actions to keep each other safe.»

For additional information please read the Company’s PDF file below (143 KB):

20210520-PREMIER-FOODS-FY-2020-2021.