Icelandic fresh prepared food specialist Bakkavör has reported a positive first quarter of 2009, with overall sales and turnover increasing despite the impacts of the global economic slowdown.
Sales increased by 9 per cent compared with the same period of 2008, growing 1 per cent on a like-for-like basis, while turnover jumped 9 per cent to £410m (€465.2m).
'We have achieved good sales growth in the quarter relative to the economic situation, underpinned by our operational flexibility, market share gains in the UK and the strong performance in our European, Asian and US operations,' said group CEO ágúst Gudmundsson. 'This positive growth demonstrates the defensive nature and sustainability of our business in times of global recession and we anticipate sales growth will remain positive despite the economic downturn.'
Loss for the period amounted to £8.1m (€9.2m), down from a loss of £12.8m (€14.5m) in the first quarter of 2008, although group earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 29 per cent to £18.7m (€21.2m).
However, Mr Gudmundsson said that this would change during the coming months, with EBITDA expected to grow around 15 per cent to £125m (€141.8m) by the end of 2009.
'We expect Q1 to mark the last period of year-on-year decline in EBITDA with the impact of disruption from restructuring coming to an end and our actions to mitigate inflationary costs, improve operational efficiencies and capacity utilisation now starting to deliver improved profits to the business,' he added.
