Blue Ribbon owner Premier Foods reports profit growth of over 15%

The Premier Foods group (Premier FMCG) has reported 'robust' results for the year ended 31 March 2024, despite an environment where many consumers are stretched to the limit.

The owner of well-known brands Snowflake, Iwisa and Blue Ribbon reported a surge of almost 16% in full year profit.

-   Revenue increased by 3.6% to R18.6 billion
-   Earnings before finance income and finance costs, tax, depreciation and
    amortisation ("EBITDA") increased by 18.6% to R2.1 billion
-   Operating profit increased by 26.4% to R1.6 billion
-   Earnings per share ("EPS") increased by 13.3% to 715 cents per share
-   Headline earnings per share ("HEPS") increased by 17.4% to 744 cents per share
-   Normalised HEPS(1) increased by 34.8% to 744 cents per share

Bruce Whitfield asks CEO Kobus Gertenbach how the Premier Group achieved these results amid a cost of living crisis.

One needs to look at their full year results more on a multi-year basis, Gertenbach says.

"Over the last decade we've invested over R6 billion to build out our plant and equipment and really invest in large-scale bakeries, in particular, that give us very good economies of scale."

"In the last year, especially with the new bakery that started up in Pretoria that we've got the full-year benefit of, we've managed to tap into those economies of scale, manage our costs and really get the benefit of that through our organisation and dropping into the bottom line."

Kobus Gertenbach, CEO - Premier Group

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