Glanbia has restated its outlook that adjusted earnings will grow by 5% to 8% during 2019. Announcing first-quarter results on Wednesday, Glanbia said revenues in the first three months of the year grew by 8.4% (constant currency). This was mainly driven by acquisitions, which delivered 9.7% growth. Sales volumes increased by 1.4% in the period, while pricing was down 2.7%.

Glanbia’s net debt position at the end of the quarter stood at €810m, which is almost double where it was this time last year, mainly as a result of the acquisitions of SlimFast and Watson.

Glanbia has also announced that John Daly, the current chair of Britvic and a former senior executive at British Tobacco, has joined the company board as an independent non-executive director.

Siobhan Talbot, group managing director at Glanbia, said the company is expecting to deliver earnings growth in the second half of 2019.

“Glanbia Nutritionals was the main driver of revenue growth with a good performance in particular from the nutritional solutions business. Glanbia performance nutrition revenue growth in the first quarter was driven by a strong performance from the recently acquired SlimFast brand. Our strategy remains on track and we reiterate our full year guidance of 5% to 8% growth in adjusted earnings per share, constant currency, in 2019, with growth to be delivered in the second half of the year,” said Talbot.

By division

Performance nutrition

Glanbia’s performance nutrition division, which comprises its portfolio of sports nutrition brands, delivered first-quarter revenue growth of just under 5%. Worryingly, however, the business saw double-digit declines in sales volumes of almost 17% and price declines of more than 3%. This was only offset by the acquisition of SlimFast in 2018, which added 25% to revenues in the division.

Glanbia said the 17% decline in sales volumes in the first quarter was a result of seasonality due to a very strong finish to the final months of 2018 as well as a number of supply chain changes in non-US markets.

Glanbia said the outlook for its performance nutrition was positive, with consumption growth expected to continue for the remainder of the year. The company said price increases will be implemented in the second half of 2019.

Nutritionals

Glanbia’s nutritionals division, which comprises its cheese and ingredients businesses, delivered a very strong performance in the opening quarter of 2019 with revenues up more than 10% year on year.

This was driven by an 11% increase in sales volumes, which more than offset price declines of 2.4%. The acquisition of the Watson business added 1.6% to the topline in quarter one.

Within the division, Glanbia said its US cheese business delivered sales growth of 5.5%. This was driven by sales volume growth of 9%, which was only partially offset by a 3.6% decline in cheese prices.

Glanbia’s nutritional solutions business (ingredients) recorded very strong revenue growth of 22% in the quarter, driven by a 16% rise in sales volumes and a near 1% rise in prices. The Watson acquisition added over 5% to revenues.