Greenyard has officially released its results fo the third quarter of 2018/19, confirming the revised REBITDA forecast it had outlined in its January statement.
The group said that sales for the quarter had fallen 5.4 per cent, down from €980.5m in the same period of 2017/18 to €927.9m.
For the first nine months of 2018/19, sales came to €2.9bn, a drop of 4.2 per cent year-on-year. This was largely attributed to the underperformance of the group's fresh segment, related to the further impact of ongoing competition in the retail sector.
By segment, fresh sales fell from €782m to €730.2m in the third quarter, and dropped 4.5 per cent to €2.38bn through the first nine months of 2018/19.
'The decline (in fresh) relates to a volume decline and continuing price pressure due to fierce retail competition in most of the key markets,' the group stated. 'Volume decline was predominantly felt on bananas, apples, grapes, pears, melons, stonefruit, bell peppers and tomatoes, with growing volumes in avocados.
'Pricing in general showed a negative trend across most of the categories,' the company added. 'Specifically in Germany and Belgium, the negative volume trend persisted in Q3, combined with lower pricing.'
Greenyard confirmed its revised REBITDA forecast of €60m-€65m for 2018/19, and said that it would communicate further details about its transformation plan and implementation actions by mid-March.
