McBride rides private label wave with strong results

By Simon Pitman

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Private label Revenue

Europe’s leading private label personal care and household products manufacturer has bucked the downward economic trend to report strong results.

UK-based McBride has announced strong preliminary fourth quarter results, ending June 30, and says that as a result its full financial year results are likely to beat both its own forecasts and those of analysts.

The company says that results for the fourth quarter are stronger, which particularly reflects good performances in France and Italy, together with improvements in the UK market that have been helped by some contract gains.

Year-on-year revenue growth

As a result, the company says that year-on-year revenue growth for the fourth quarter is expected to be 6 per cent, while full year revenues are expected to grow by approximately 4 per cent.

For the 2007 – 2008 financial year ending June 30, the company reported annual sales of £700.9m, a figure that was up 18 per cent on the previous year, driven by acquisitions and favourable currency translations.

Of this figure the split between household and personal care products is approximately 55 per cent household products and the remaining share is for personal care products.

Supplying leading European retailers

The company supplies some of the largest retailers in Europe, including Tesco and Carrefour, and has been concentrating its expansion strategy on continental Europe in recent years.

The company says it expects operating profits for the full year of around £35m, while year-end net debt is expected to be less than £90m.

Speaking about the results, Chief Executive Miles Roberts said the results were a good end to the year and reflected strong demand in its private label offerings.

Driving operational efficiencies

“Our continuing focus on driving operational efficiencies has been reflected in a satisfactory second half and full year operating performance,”​ he said.

McBride has found itself well placed during the economic downturn as private label has proved to be relatively well insulated.

This trend is being driven by diminishing consumer budgets, which is forcing many to turn away from premium and mass market products made by the bigger and top end players, in favour of less expensive private label products.

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