Greencore (GNC) is continuing to overhaul its portfolio. In June, the convenience food company completed the phased closure of its desserts manufacturing facility in Evercreech. Now, Greencore is considering dropping foods with a later expiration date in favour of fresher options. It’s proposing the phasing out of longer-life ready meals manufacturing at its Kiveton site, where management says it will continue to make quiche and soup, in order to focus on other areas of its ready meal network. If employees agree to the consultation, this ready meal unit would close around March next year with “moderate” cash costs.
This strategy consideration came alongside a third quarter update, where group sales were reported to be up 0.5 per cent to £640m, and 14 per cent year-to-date to £1.88bn. This has been driven by the distribution of third-party products through Greencore’s direct to store network as part of its food-to-go business.
Outside of this, reported revenue in the UK and Ireland convenience food business fell 12.8 per cent due to the closure of cakes and desserts manufacturing. In the US, reported sales fell 0.8 per cent to £264m, where pro-forma revenue growth of 19.4 per cent in the Peacock Foods business helped to offset a 25.2 per cent decline in sales from the original part of the US business.
