Financial highlights:
Full year revenue growth of 4.4% to £1,321.9m
Strong EBITA growth of 18.4% to £137.9m with a 120bps improvement in margin
Brand contribution growth across all business units
Strong free cash flow generation of £103.5m, resulting in a 9.9% reduction in adjusted net debt
Adjusted net debt /EBITDA ratio reduced to 2.2x from 2.8x
Adjusted earnings per share up 27.5% to 35.2p and full year dividend increases by 4.0% to 18.4p
Strategic highlights:
Strategic initiatives remain on-track to deliver £30m of cost savings per annum by 2016, £10m of which will be invested into the international growth opportunities
Agreement concluded with PepsiCo Americas Beverages (PAB) for a 15 year bottling agreement for further manufacturing and distribution in the USA. As a result Fruit Shoot will be distributed in 41 states during 2014
Fruit Shoot market share in GB back at pre-recall levels and ahead internationally
Simon Litherland, Chief Executive Officer commented:
"We have delivered a strong financial performance in a year of significant change for our business. We have grown revenue and price in all of our business units and gained market value share, resulting in operating profit growth in excess of 18%. We have also reduced debt by nearly 10%, on the back of improved free cash flow generation. We have made good progress on the strategic initiatives that we communicated back in May and remain on-track to deliver £30m per annum of cost savings from 2016. Today's announcement of a new agreement with PepsiCo Americas Beverages (PAB) for significant additional expansion in the USA is further evidence of the growth opportunities that exist for our brands internationally.
"While we anticipate that the consumer environment will remain challenging in 2014, trading in the new financial year is slightly ahead of a strong first quarter performance last year and we are confident of delivering EBIT in the range of £148m to £156m for the full year."
