US drags Aryzta performance

Aryzta, the Swiss-based bakery company, has reported third quarter revenues of €973.2m.

Although this represents a 13.2% increase on the same period last year, underlying revenues actually declined by 2.3%.

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This decline was offset by acquisitions providing 3.1% growth and favourable currency movements providing 12.4% growth.

In Europe, revenues grew by 4.7% to €405.9m with underlying growth of 1.8%. While margins have softened, the group’s European business was largely driven by in-store bakery sales in the large discount retailers.

In North America, third quarter revenues grew by 21.5% to €509.4m. Acquisition growth of 6.9% and positive currency movements of 21.3% offset a decline in underlying revenues of 6.7%, mainly as a result of reducing the type of products in a bid to streamline operations.

New biscuit factory

A new Irish biscuit company, East Coast Bakehouse, is investing €15m in a new manufacturing facility in Co Louth. CEO Michael Carey, who knows the biscuit industry well, is also the current chairman of Bord Bia and one of the founders of The Company of Food, a specialist food investment business.

Carey served as managing director of the British company Fox’s biscuits. He was then part of the management buyout of Fruitfields Foods when it was acquired from Nestlé in 2002. Fruitfield bought Jacob’s from Danone in 2004, forming the Jacob Fruitfield Group. The business was then offloaded to Valeo Foods in 2011 in a deal believed to be in the region of €80m.

The Irish biscuit market is valued at €170m, while the UK market is valued at over €2bn.

The new company will produce its own new brand of biscuits while also manufacturing private label products, serving both domestic and export markets.