Full-year earnings slide at McBride
HOUSEHOLD and personal care products manufacturer McBride saw sales and earnings slide last year as it wound down some of its contract manufacturing facilities.
In the year to the end of June revenues slipped 6.4% to £761.4m (2012: £813.9m) while pre-tax profits were down 21% to £9.5m (2012: £12.1m).
However, the group racked up exceptional charges of £5.9m, with £3.7m relating to the restructuring and the balance associated with an impariment at a bleach manufacturing site.
The listed group has one of its largest production sites in Middleton, Manchester, as well as sites in Barrow, Bradford and Hull.
UK revenue declined by 7% to £286.3m reflecting the exit from low-margin private label contracts – those manufactured for other brands – and discounted branded promotional activity.
In Western Europe revenue declined by 9% to £409.9m due to the wind down of some contract manufacturing activities. But sales in the rest of the world grew by 16% to £65.2m driven by private label sales in Poland.
Chief executive Chris Bull said: “This has been a challenging year, during which we have wound down selected contract manufacturing business, whilst also facing an increase in branded competition as we reported in our March trading statement.
“Despite this, we have started to make good progress, with our successful product launch programme contributing to Private Label revenue growth of 2% in the second half. Although the economic environment remains challenging, we are seeing private label retail sales volumes grow in a number of our core markets.”
