Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Belgium-based Greenyard has said that its supply, transport and logistics and main markets remain fully operational.
According to Greenyard, the implementation of early, group-wide coordinated safety measures and the dedication of its employees have allowed operations to continue, while also acknowledging that its foremost concern is the health and safety of all its employees, in particular its most vulnerable colleagues.
'The speed, transparency and efficiency of the partnership model in particular, has allowed Greenyard, its partners and growers to uphold a strong supply chain, the company stated. 'Greenyard assumes the full responsibility to secure the supply of healthy food, vital in our society, especially during this pandemic.'
As a result of widespread Covid-19 quarantine measures and subsequent shift of volumes from foodservice to food retailers, the demand of Greenyard’s food retail customers and partners in its Fresh and Long Fresh segments had increased strongly, the group outlined.
'Such increase entails additional complexity and costs in the supply chain (higher purchase prices, transport and processing prices), however, ultimately, the impact on the financial results is positive.'
Results
Greenyard’s transformation, which has been onging since the early part of 2019, is continuing strongly, the group said, with the revitalisation of volumes and margins, streamlining of the organisation, and strict cost control and operational efficiency improvements areas such as logistics being implemented.
The company also noted that it was taking further steps into expanding its long-term partnerships.
Based on a first view of its preliminary and unaudited full year results for 2019/20, it is expecting net sales for its financial year to come in at around €4.05bn.
Greenyard confirmed that even before the volume increase resulting from the Coronavirus outbreak, net sales growth stood at around 2.4 per cent for the year.
Net debt has also been reduced by more than €25m, totalling around €430m at the end of March, a figure that the group said 'exceeds expectations', particularly as several divestments have not yet been effectuated, in addition to market conditions during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The group's adjusted EBITDA guidance is between €88m and €93m and, based on a first view of the preliminary and unaudited results, Greenyard expects to end the financial year with an adjusted EBITDA between €93m and € 95m – including a positive effect of around €1.5m to €2m from higher volumes as a result of Covid-19 in March.
This increased guidance also includes an exceptional unexpected negative operational result for Greenyard's Fresh operation in France of around €3.5m, due to the execution of the final steps in its Transformation Plan.
'With this in mind, the new adjusted EBITDA guidance serves as a strong base for further autonomous growth of Greenyard’s results,' the group concluded.
