Convenience food group Greencore has reported a slight fall (-0.6%) in adjusted pre-tax profits to £79.6m for its financial year to the end of September 2018. Announcing full year results on Tuesday morning for its UK and Ireland business, Greencore said revenues for the year increased more than 4% to £1.5bn as a result of solid growth in the sandwich category.

Adjusted operating profits for the year increased 1.7% to just under £105m, despite profit margins in the business narrowing slightly from 7.2% in 2017 to 7% for the 2018 financial year. Net debt in the business was reduced to just over £501m, leaving Greencore with a net debt to earnings ratio of 2.3 times.

The group has proposed a dividend of 5.57p per share, which is a 2% increase on last year.

US sale

These results relate solely to Greencore’s UK and Ireland business. Having announced the sale of its US business in October as part of a €930m deal, Greencore has reported the financial performance of its US business separately under discontinued operations.

The former US arm of Greencore recorded like-for-like sales growth of 7% to reach £1.1bn. Adjusted operating profits in the US business grew by 29% in the year to reach £48m, as profit margins widened from 4.2% to 4.5%.

Greencore will now use to proceeds of the sale of its US business to return £509m to shareholders via a tender offer.

Patrick Coveney, chief executive at Greencore, described 2018 as a year of “significant change” for the company.

He said: “We delivered good underlying growth in the UK, with favourable consumer and retailer trends helping drive our core food to go business. After the financial year-end, we took the decision to sell our US business having received a compelling offer for it.

“We will now focus all of our attention and resources on the significant growth opportunities that we see in the UK, both organic and inorganic. Despite the short-term uncertainties of Brexit, our scale, depth and expertise in attractive and structurally growing food categories mean that we are confident in the future growth prospects for Greencore.”