Mcbride Regulatory News (MCB)

26 Oct 2009 07:00



26 October 2009

McBride plc

AGM and Interim Management Statement

McBride plc, Europe's leading provider of Private Label household and personal care products, which holds its 2009 Annual General Meeting today, provides its Interim Management Statement for the period from 1 July 2009 to 25 October 2009.

The overall trading performance of the Group for the period has been ahead of Board expectations.

Group revenues increased by 7% (including 4% from currency movements) against the comparable period last year and the performance reflects a further shift in the business mix to higher value business in line with the Group's stated strategy. Accordingly, the operating margin performance so far this year has also been ahead of that reported in the second half of the last financial year. 

The Group continues to focus on careful cash management and anticipates net debt at the end of October to be around £65m compared to £82.4m at 30 June 2009. As a result of this finance costs are slightly lower than expected.

We continue to see good performance in the Private Label market and continuing demand, in particular, for our high growth core categories in our main markets at a time of slowly rising raw material prices. We continue to benefit from contract gains in both the UK and Continental Europe. The Group also continues to derive value from the various restructuring measures taken last year.

Commenting on the performance, Miles Roberts, Chief Executive said: "We have built on the good start we made to the current financial year. Our markets remain highly competitive and will continue to be so as Private Label continues to perform strongly in its core categories in these difficult economic times. We will therefore continue our strategy of focusing on where we can add value for our customers."

For further information please contact

McBride plc 020 7539 7850

Miles Roberts, Chief Executive

Paul Bergin, Interim Finance Director

Financial Dynamics 020 7831 3113

Andrew Dowler