The UK’s Premier Foods saw annual revenues decline by 20.1% to £856.2 million inits last financial year.
“I am very pleased to report a strong 18% growth in trading profit and significant underlying earnings progression in 2013,” said Gavin Darby, CEO of Premier Foods. “Through our category based strategy, we have delivered Grocery Power Brands sales growth of 2.0%, some good market share performances and progressively stronger customer partnerships. We continue to reduce business complexity through our disciplined approach to our cost base and have successfully reduced our Net debt by £120 million during the year.”
“I’m delighted we have concluded our capital structure review and are announcing a transformational new deal which includes an underwritten equity issue of approximately £353m, a landmark pension schemes agreement, a high yield bond of £475m and a new lending agreement with a smaller banking group. This new capital structure will liberate Premier Foods from its past and provides a great platform on which to execute our category based strategy.”
“Following the announcement to simplify the Group through the Hovis joint venture, we are now focused on growing a high quality branded Grocery business, with its strong underlying cash flows. While consumer spending trends are currently subdued, we are confident in our expectations for 2014.”
The company is refinancing some £1.13bn in order to reduce debt, which commentators estimate will reduce from £831m at the end of December 2013, to about £513m.
