The results, which also saw earnings per share rise 29.4% on a reported basis to 79.14 euro cent (62p), were driven by Glanbia’s performance nutrition business as consumers sought healthier lifestyles, its group md Siobhán Talbot claimed.
“Glanbia’s strategy is to respond to the global megatrends of nutrition, as consumers focus on active, healthy lifestyles, seek protein and exert a powerful focus on where their food comes from,” she said.
Nutrition brands performing
“In responding to these trends, Glanbia takes pure and clean ingredients including milk, whey and grains and using our expertise, we produce high-quality nutritional ingredients and branded products for consumers worldwide.”
Glanbia’s portfolio of performance nutrition brands and nutritional ingredients are right at the heart of emerging growth opportunities, Talbot said.
“The outlook for 2016 is positive and we are guiding 8% to 10% growth in adjusted earnings per share, constant currency,” she added.
Glanbia’s results – at a glance
- £214M: EBITDA
- EBITDA margins up 9.8% up to 130 basis points constant currency
- £107M: Glanbia Performance Nutrition EBITDA
- 79.14 cent: adjusted earnings per share
- £84M : Global Ingredients EBITDA
- £23M: Dairy Ireland EBITA
- £223M: operating cash flow – improved by £59M
- Recommended full year dividend of 12.1 cent per share, an increase of 10%
- Joint ventures and associates performed in line with expectations
Glanbia Performance Nutrition recorded EBITDA of €135.6M (£107M) a 28.3% increase, constant currency up 52.0% reported.
‘Difficult year for dairy markets’
Global Ingredients EBITDA decreased 11.6% to €106.6M (£84M), off the back of the tough trading conditions in the dairy market.
Despite a “difficult year for dairy markets”, Glanbia’s dairy Ireland margins recovered to 4.5%, with EBITDA at €28.8M (£23M).
Last month, Glanbia Co-operative Society pledged to provide its suppliers with €35.6M worth of support throughout 2016.
Its ‘2016 Member Support Package’ comes after it paid an estimated €30M to members of the Society for 2015.
The package will include at least €21M of milk price support, equating to an average of at least 1 cent per litre (cpl) on all milk supplied by members in 2016.
This move comes at a time when dairy farmers are being paid well below the price of production for milk.