Global nutrition group Glanbia has reported an 8.7% decline in group revenue to $5.425 billion for the 2023 financial year, down from $5.943 billion in 2022.
However, earnings per share were up by around a fifth to 131.37 cents and its profit after tax on a reported basis rose by 20% to $298.1m from $248m in 2022.
Glanbia shares jumped over 8% in Dublin trade today.
The company announced this time last year that it was switching its reporting currency to US dollars from euro.
The Glanbia board is recommending a final dividend of 21.21 euro cent per share, which brings the total dividend for the year to 35.43 euro cent per share - a 10% increase on the previous year.
Hugh McGuire, the company's new chief executive, said Glanbia's "excellent performance in 2023" was driven by strong global consumer demand, with Optimum Nutrition continuing its growth momentum, delivering volume and price growth in the period.
Mr McGuire also noted that overall volume trends continued to improve through the year in its Nutritional Solutions business, with a sequential improvement in volume growth in the fourth quarter.
"Our strong operational and financial performance continued to generate excellent cash flow, with 90.4% cash conversion in the year. We continued to evolve our portfolio with the acquisition of a bioactive ingredients business and the sale of our share of Glanbia Cheese joint ventures," the CEO said.
"Glanbia is a company with very strong fundamentals - a clear strategy, a portfolio of great brands and ingredients playing into strong underlying consumer health and wellness trends with a team of talented people," Hugh McGuire said.
"Looking ahead, we will focus on driving growth and shareholder value by stepping up awareness and distribution of our great brands, with a robust innovation pipeline across both our growth platforms. In 2024, we expect adjusted EPS growth of 5% to 8% constant currency, which will be driven by a strong operating performance across both GPN and GN NS," he added.
Breaking down its divisions, Glanbia said that revenue at its Glanbia Performance Nutrition unit rose by 4.9% to $1.795 billion from $1.712 billion in 2022 on a reported basis, while EBITA jumped by 33.1% to $255.4m from $191.9m
Glanbia said that pricing in 2023 was positive following the execution of price increases in 2022, adding that the price increases implemented to offset inflation have largely been maintained across the portfolio with "consumer elasticity" within the performance nutrition category better than expected.
Revenue at its Nutritional Solutions division fell by 15% to $1,008 billion from $1,187 billion in 2022, on the back of lower volumes, a 9% decrease in price and a decrease of 2.6% driven by the net impact of acquisitions and disposals. EBITA for the year slowed by 6.5% to $126.2m from $135m.
Glanbia said the business continues to support customers across a broad range of categories, ultimately seeking to address growing consumer health and wellness trends.
"While 2023 saw a period of customer inventory rebalancing in the custom premix business, the demand at a consumer level remains fundamentally unchanged," it added.
Meanwhile, revenue at its US Cheese division decreased by 13.9% to $2.621 billion from $3,044 billion due to 0.7% increase in volume and a 14.6% decline in price, with the pricing decline aligned to the lower year-on-year cheese market pricing.
But EBITA increased by 9.6% to $42.4m as a result of strong operating efficiencies and some procurement benefits.
During 2023 Glanbia purchased and cancelled 7,215,827 million ordinary shares, representing 2.7% of total issued ordinary shares at the beginning of 2023, at a total cost of €100m.
The company said today that its Board has approved a further €100m share buyback authority in 2024 as part of its capital allocation policy.
