Dairy Crest Group Delivered a good first half performance

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Dairy Crest Group (LON:DCG), today announced interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2018.

Highlights

· Revenue up 2% to £224.9m

· Adjusted profit before tax* up 13% to £22.7m; reported profit before tax of £17.8m

· Cathedral City and Clover deliver strong revenue growth of +7% and +9% respectively

· New product innovation across the business

· Pension surplus increased by £87m on an accounting basis since September 2017

· Cash generated from operations up 71% to £18.5m

· Net debt* reduced to £221.4m following the May 2018 share placing; 21% lower than
September 2017

· Proposed interim dividend up 2% to 6.4 pence

· Full year expectations remain unchanged

Financial summary

Financial summary
	Half year ended 30 September
	2018	2017	Change
Revenue	£224.9m	£220.1m	+2%
Adjusted profit before tax*	£22.7m	£20.0m	+13%
Profit before tax¹	£17.8m	£151.4m	-88%
Adjusted basic earnings per share*	12.3p	11.6p	+6%
Basic earnings per share¹	9.7p	87.6p	-89%
Pension surplus	£126.9m	£39.9m	+218%
Net debt*²	£221.4m	£281.4m	-21%
Interim dividend	6.4p	6.3p	+2%

*Alternative performance measures:

The Group uses alternative performance measures (APMs) as key financial performance indicators to assess the underlying performance of the Group. The APMs are widely used industry measures and form the measurement basis of key targets. Definitions of the APMs discussed throughout this document and a reconciliation to the equivalent reported measure are detailed in Note 13.

1 Including an exceptional cost of £4.9m (2017: exceptional gain of £131.4m recognised primarily for the reduction in pension scheme liabilities).
2 For a reconciliation of net debt, refer to note 9 of the interim financial statements.

All comparative figures in the interim results announcement relate to the six months ended 30 September 2017.

Mark Allen, Chief Executive of Dairy Crest, said:

“We have delivered a good first half performance driven by our two largest brands, Cathedral City and Clover. Demand for our Functional Ingredients continues to grow.

“Innovation continues to shape the business and we have recently launched exciting new products in all of our categories. We understand the importance of staying ahead of the market and ensuring we are meeting consumers’ needs. Food provenance, health and wellbeing are core themes which we will continue to focus on.

“Our investment at Davidstow is progressing as planned. We are pursuing a number of opportunities to take Cathedral City into new international markets as well as deepen its penetration into existing domestic channels, capitalising on its status as one of the UK’s top ten brands according to YouGov. We are confident in delivering our expectations for the full year.”