Greencore’s trading update published on Tuesday morning showed a 13% increase in pro-forma revenues for its financial year to the end of the September, with profits expected to be in the £74m to £76m (€85.5m to €87.9m) range.

Both those figures were ahead of analysts’ expectations for the UK’s largest sandwich maker, and a strong recovery from the pre-tax loss announced for the first six months of the year.

Chief executive Dalton Philips said it had been a “strong second-half performance … against the backdrop of inflation and a challenging consumer environment.”

Buyback scheme

The company also announced it was restarting its share buyback scheme, with £15m (€17.3m) of equity to be purchased by the end of the March 2024.

The stock market reacted very positively to the better-than-expected performance, with shares in Greencore surging as much as 25% to 86 pence on the London stock exchange.

That share price, however, is still far below Greencore’s pre-pandemic level when it traded around £2.50 (€2.89) per share.