EBITDA £18.7 million in Q1
9% sales growth despite tough climate
EBITDA expected to grow around 15% on 2008, to £125 million
Cash benefits from restructuring start in Q2 and grow significantly in the year
• Turnover £410 million in Q1, up 9%.
• Like-for-like (constant currency) sales growth up 1% on Q1 2008.
• EBITDA £18.7 million in Q1 2009, down 29%. EBITDA margin 4.6%, compared to
7.0% in Q1 2008.
• Loss for the period amounted to £8.1 million in 2009 compared with a loss of
£12.8 million in Q1 2008.
• Cash inflow from operations, excluding one-off cash outflows relating to
restructuring costs, £1.3 million in Q1 2009, compared to a cash inflow of
£6.4 million in Q1 2008.
• Trading in Q2 started strongly with management forecasting an increase in
EBITDA of around 15% for the full year 2009.
Ágúst Gudmundsson, Chief Executive Officer:
We have achieved good sales growth in the quarter relative to the economic
situation, underpinned by our operational flexibility, market share gains in
the UK, and strong performance in our European, Asia and US operations. This
positive growth demonstrates the defensive nature and sustainability of our
business in times of global recession and we anticipate sales growth will
remain positive despite the economic downturn.
We expect Q1 to mark the last period of year-on-year decline in EBITDA with the
impact of disruption from restructuring coming to an end and our actions to
mitigate inflationary costs, improve operational efficiencies and capacity
utilisation now starting to deliver improved profits to the business. By the
end of 2009 we expect our EBITDA* to grow by around 15% to £125 million.
We will start to see cash benefits in Q2 deriving from the extensive
restructuring activities we initiated in 2008 and expect cash generation to
grow significantly in the year.
Constructive discussions with key bondholders of the holding company, Bakkavör
Group hf, are on-going and the Board of Directors remains hopeful that the
discussions will reach a successful conclusion and that the Group will secure
support for the extension of bond maturities. In Q1 we announced that we had
secured funding across all operating businesses for the next three years,
demonstrating the financial stability of the operating businesses.
Key Contacts:
Ágúst Gudmundsson, CEO
Tel: +354 550 9700
Richard Howes, CFO
Tel: +354 550 9700
Snorri Gudmundsson, IR
Tel: +354 550 9710/+354 858 9710
