Greencore, the sandwiches and ready meals maker, said product innovation and cost controls helped boost the business’s growth, with momentum continuing into its new financial year.
Group revenue for the 52 weeks ended September 26th 2025 was up 7.7 per cent to £1.97 billion, driven by new business wins, volume growth, and inflation and pricing impacts, the group said.
Chief executive Dalton Philips attributed the growth to innovation, alongside a number of factors.
“What’s fuelling all of this at the moment is just a high level of innovation – up 20 per cent in terms of new products this year versus last year – very strong cost control, operating performance. That combination has come nicely together.”
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Operating profit was up almost 20 per cent to £101.1 million, while adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was £181.2 million, an 18 per cent rise. Pretax profit surged more than 29 per cent to £79.5 million.
Mr Philips said the company had been hit by inflation to the tune of around £50 million. “About 40 per cent of the inflation is policy inflation – National Insurance increases, packaging rates, business rates increases. You mitigate it by managing your own costs or having transparent conversations with your customers and having to pass it on. We’ve been trying to mitigate as much as we can.”
Manufactured volume growth was 2.5 per cent, with underlying volume growth of 1.1 per cent beating the wider grocery market growth of 0.7 per cent.
An operational excellence programme yielded productivity gains of 4 per cent year on year. Greencore increased investment in its core business by 34 per cent year on year, reaching £43.4 million.
Greencore is proposing a dividend of 2.6 pence per share for the year.
“Greencore delivered an outstanding performance in FY25, which is a credit to our 13,300 colleagues and our partnership with customers and suppliers,” said Mr Philips.
“Momentum has continued into the new financial year and I’m excited for what’s to come in FY26, a year that also marks Greencore’s 100th year in business.”
Looking ahead, Greencore said the business was in a strong position.
“There is a lot of opportunity just to be more efficient. Automation, for example, is an area where we can do a lot more,” Mr Philips said. “It’s very beneficial for our shareholders, if we can mine some of those opportunities.”
The company is also expecting to complete the acquisition of Bakkavor Group in early 2026 after it received clearance in principle from the UK competition watchdog to proceed with its £1.2 billion takeover.
As part of the deal, Greencore offered to sell its Bristol manufacturing plant that makes chilled sauces and soups, averting an in-depth, phase two investigation by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into the proposed acquisition.
“There’s a heavy workload of bringing the two businesses together. What’s great is they’re very similar businesses: we have the same customers, we are in the same part of the store, the chilled part of the store, and in many cases, we have the same buyers that we’re dealing with from a customer point of view,” Mr Philips said. “So we’re confident that we can really integrate these two businesses together without any missteps.”
