Food group Greencore has reported a large revenue increase of 3% to £1.197 billion for its 2013 financial year.
Operating profit rose 8% to £76.5m year-on-year, while the company also reported string growth in adjusted earnings per share, which were up over 13% to 14.5 pence.
The company said UK market conditions proved challenging with lower market growth in chilled food than in previous years.This worsened by the impact of the horsemeat scandal.
However, the firm also added that the good summer weather boosted its sandwich and chilled food sales.
"We didn't get revenue growth early in the year but during the summer, we saw revenues build pretty strongly.The impact of horsemeat scandal cost us up to about £15m in revenue. But the rest of our portfolio kicked in and performed strongly." Chief Executive of Greencore, Patrick Coveney said to the Irish Independent.
Reported revenues in America were more than 60% higher than last year as a result of the MarketFare and Schau acquisitions and the commencement of a multi-year supply arrangement with Starbucks.
"We consolidated our portfolio after the extensive deal activity of the three preceding years, increased revenue at our US business by over 60pc and realigned our resources behind a food to go led strategy." the company added.
