Real Good Food Company Plc (The) Trading Update (1342M)
13 Septembre 2012 - 8:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMRGD
RNS Number : 1342M
Real Good Food Company Plc (The)
13 September 2012
The Real Good Food Company plc (AIM: RGD)
AGM Statement
The Real Good Food Company plc ("the Group"), owns the largest
independent non-refining distributor of sugar in Europe (Napier
Brown), is a supplier of dairy ingredients ("Garrett Ingredients"),
supplies bakery ingredients (through Renshaw and R&W Scott) and
manufactures patisserie and desserts (Haydens Bakery)
At today's Annual General Meeting, Pieter Totté, Chairman, will
make the following comments:
In my commentary on the 2011/12 results I highlighted that we
had delivered on our commitment to return the Group to growth in
both sales and profitability, with EBITDA up 62% at GBP9.1m on a
like-for-like basis. Today, I am pleased to report that the current
year has begun well, with a strong first quarter, a flatter second
quarter, but early indications to suggest that our
seasonally-strong third quarter will be exciting.
We are embarking on a key period of expansion, in which we aim
to transform the scale of the Group over the next three years. In
delivering this next phase of growth, we continue to implement the
strategies we have developed for each of our divisions, supported
by centralised Group support in areas such as Human Resources,
Compliance & Governance, Operations & Marketing.
At Napier Brown, a key driver of the Group's future, we are
focussing on multi-sourcing, and offering customers alternatives to
the EU beet refiners, whilst providing them with more security in
the supply chain.
Our investment this year in sugar handling facilities will
enable us to cost-effectively supply sugar sourced worldwide and
meeting all the required technical standards. Our new strategic
partnership with Mauritius-based Omnicane, which now has a 20%
shareholding in the Group, significantly boosts our ability to
source the sugar we need.
Omnicane is exporting its low-cost, sugar cane refining model to
fellow African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) / Least Developed Countries
(LDC) producers, further opening doors for accessing new sources of
sugar for Napier Brown. The business has launched a range of
speciality sugars under the 'Whitworths for Baking' brand in major
retail outlets, bringing innovation and a point of difference, with
extremely positive early results.
Garrett Ingredients continues to develop well as a stand-alone
entity from Napier Brown, implementing its own strategy of
developing new dairy sources in Europe, exploiting new
distributorships such as in dextrose and sweetened condensed milk,
and broadening its product offering.
Renshaw continues to perform well, driven by strong demand from
the home baking sector and continued growth in export sales. The
Renshaw brand launch in the retail and craft sectors went well,
giving us the platform to broaden the brand from its traditional UK
'b2b' to global consumers.
In support of this we will be launching a web-shop channel early
next year. We are also making some investments in the Liverpool
site, in order to be more efficient in meeting the record volumes
we are producing.
During the year we re-established R&W Scott as a separate
trading entity from Renshaw in order to bring more commercial and
operational focus to its traditional chocolate coatings and jam
products, as well as the recent additions of dry powder mixes and
sauces. We can already see an improvement in its financial
performance as a result.
Haydens continues to implement its recovery plan, with a focus
on modernising the factory and extending its product offering,
complemented by selling new products into new channels, especially
foodservice. We still anticipate the benefits from this will be
seen in the second half of this financial year.
Our current five-year funding facilities with our bankers, PNC,
expire in July 2013 and I am pleased to be able to report that we
now nearing the conclusion of discussions regarding a renewal of
our facilities. We expect to make a further announcement on funding
in the near future.
Based on our positive start, and the successful implementation
of our growth plans, I am confident we are on track to meet market
expectations for the current year.
13 September 2012
ENQUIRIES:
The Real Good Food Company plc Tel: 0151 706 8200
Pieter Totté, Chairman
Mike McDonough, Group Finance Director
Shore Capital Tel: 020 7408 4090
Stephane Auton / Patrick Castle
Cubitt Consulting Tel: 020 7367 5100
Gareth David / Cebuan Bliss
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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