Food group Greencore has today reported group revenue up nearly 6.5% to over £1.27 billion in its full year results.
Group operating profit was around 11.5% higher at just under £83m.
Patrick Coveney, the chief executive of Greencore, said much of the group's focus was on the US but the UK remained its key revenue driver. The group today announced an expansion of its US operations with a new facility on the West coast. "We now have a platform to extend our reach in the US and extend distribution right the way across the States," he said.
"The core growth in 2014, and I suspect it will be the same next year, is the strong revenue growth and strong consumption of sandwich items in the UK. That's the core of our business and will remain so," Mr Coveney said. The two main categories of growth for Greencore are the convenience food sector and the food-to-go sector.
"Food-to-go is what consumers would know as immediate consumption foods, food you can eat straight away. Two thirds of our revenue come from that source and it's the part that's growing most rapidly. The balance is in fresh food that people would take home and prepare in a microwave or an oven," he explained.
Patrick Coveney addressed the recent controversy in the UK over Greencore's decision to go to Eastern Europe to recruit workers for its extended sandwich facility in Northampton. "We made a bit of a mess of that to be honest," he said. "We are recruiting lots of British nationals. More than half of our workforce are from the UK. There is a big demand to work in the UK. You would expect us to find the best people. We're going to bring on board 250 people on top of the 1,200 we already employ there."
Pressed on whether the group would go ahead with its plans to recruit workers from Eastern Europe, Mr Coveney said they would source their workers from a combination of local people "who have been living for years and years in the Northampton area and some people who are new citizens in the UK."
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