Glisten to delay results as investigations continue
SNACKS and sweets group Glisten has confirmed that it will have to delay its year-end results until an independent review of its accounting and reporting processes has been completed.
The Leeds-based group announced in June that it had suspended two senior directors and that its full year results would be below previous expectations following “apparent failures in accounting practice and management process” at its Halo Food division.
Today the food manufacturer said that although auditors Ernst & Young were well into the review it would not conclude until early September. A new date for publishing its results will be notified in due course.
Any discussion with Glisten’s banks regarding renewed and restructured facilities will also have to wait until the external review is completed. Glisten said it expected these discussions to be completed in October.
Despite the investigation, Glisten said there were was “no indication” that there are any matters of concern but re-stated that results for the year ended June 30 will be below previously announced expectations.
As a result the group now expects pre-exceptional pre-tax profit to be £3.4m compared to £6.8m for the year before.
Final full year sales stand at £74.4m – a slight fall from £73.8m for 2008. Trading in the first seven weeks of the new financial year are 20% up like-for-like.
However, its confectionary division saw sales drop 8% on last year to £30.3m. Likewise, Glisten’s cereal, fruit and nutritional snacks division sales fell by 4%.
As already reported, Halo Foods had very poor final quarter profits caused by a lack of control through a period of accelerating sales demand.
Bucking the downward trend though is the firm’s savoury snacks division with Dormen and WeightWatchers brands performing “solidly”. Sales for the period were £16.2m – up 37% versus the prior year and 15% on a like-for-like basis.
Glisten serves a wide variety of customers including most high street retailers, many major food manufacturers and the foodservice sector. It also exports to more than 20 countries worldwide.
The principal activities of Glisten are the manufacture of cereal, fruit snack bars and health bars – many of which have a diet-control or sports/energy dimension.
Glisten is a leader in organic and natural snacks and premium confectionery.
It also manufactures specialised coatings, which it markets to the broader food industry particularly Europe’s largest ice-cream and bakery manufacturers.
In September 2007, the group acquired 50% of Skinny Candy, a young branded confectionery business focused on low sugar-low fat confectionery, and Dormen Foods, which became the foundation stone of the Savoury Snacking Division.
This was followed in November 2007 by the acquisition of Big Thoughts comprising two subsidiaries active in the low fat/baked savoury snacking marketplace ‘Snacks Unlimited’ and ‘The Lindum Snack Company Limited’.
It listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in June 2002 with sales of £14.3m. Group turnover for the year ended 30 June 2008 was £73.8m.
The company now employs approximately 600 people across its manufacturing sites around the UK. Some of Glisten’s sites are nut-free and have organic-food accreditation.
