Greencore, the UK’s largest sandwich-maker and convenience food producer, announced a return to revenue and profit growth for the 2021 financial year ending 24 October.

Group revenue was up 4.8% to £1.325m (€1.559m) with operating profit more than doubling to £42.8m (€50.4m) compared to £12.9m (€15.2m) for the previous year.

This meant that the group returned to profitability, posting a group profit before tax of £27.8m (€32.7m) compared with a loss of £10.8m (€12.7m) in 2020.

Greencore, which produced 645m sandwiches in the 2021 financial year and distributes to 10,500 stores across the UK daily, was particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 lockdown and loss of footfall in urban centres.

It was also recently announced that Patrick Coveney, chief executive for the past 14 years at Greencore, would be leaving his position in March 2022 to become group CEO at the food service group, SSP.