The board of Greencore Group plc has issued a statement on Thursday (24 August) noting the recent weakness in its share price.
In the statement the board said is not aware of any developments since the release of the convenience foods producer's third quarter trading statement on July 27 that changes the outlook contained in that statement.
As outlined in the statement, Greencore has asserted "the integration of our US business is on track and we continue to be encouraged by the pipeline of commercial opportunities being explored with existing and new customers".
Headquartered in Dublin, the group notes there has been "some level of churn in the legacy retail part of the US business".
The statement goes on to state, "Specifically, [Greencore] has decided to refocus its Jacksonville, Florida site on fresh product offerings and will withdraw from current frozen product production on that site. This change is being managed seamlessly with the relevant customers and the Board anticipates that the impact on profitability will be minimal".
At the end of June 2017, Greencore acquired a sandwich production facility in West Drayton, near Heathrow, to increase enable the group to increase its food to go manufacturing capacity.
It also acquired US consumer packaged goods company Peacock Foods at the end of December 2016.
Although Greencore remains positive about its performance, Clive Black, analyst at Shore Capital, said that such impromptu updates on poor share price performance are "rarely promising matters and read more defensive than not".
"As such, we continue to watch the sliding share price with interest and concern trying to work out what the market knows that we do not, noting as we do that the market is usually right," he added.
In the statement Greencore highlighted its plans to issue its next trading update on the release of its full year results on November 28, 2017.
© 2017 - Checkout Magazine by Donna Ahern
