A 4.7% increase in sales during the fourth quarter assured a positive annual performance for Nomad Foods in 2017, as the Feltham, England-headquartered producer and marketer of Birds Eye, Iglo and Findus frozen food products posted a year-on-year revenue gain of 1.5% to €1.957 billion.
“It was an outstanding year for us,” said CEO Stéfan Descheemaeker. “We reported full year organic revenue growth of 3.9% and expanded gross margins by 100 basis points. “We enter 2018 in a position of strength. The acquisition of Goodfella’s Pizza, once closed, will provide a complementary source of growth to our base business and illustrate the power of our value creation model.”
Nomad’s profit for the quarter and year amounted, respectively, to €27 million and €137 million. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) were €0.27 in Q4 (up 108%) and €1.00 for the year (up 19%).
Full year 2018 adjusted EBITDA is expected to be approximately €350 to €360 million, which equates to adjusted EPS of approximately €1.08 to €1.13 based on the current share count of 176 million. Full year guidance assumes organic revenue growth at a low-single digits percentage rate.
“These results further validate the strategy that we have been executing against for the past two years,” said Noam Gottesman, the company’s co-chairman and founder. “The combination of base business momentum, strong cash flow generation and accretive capital deployment positions us to drive continued shareholder value in 2018.”
Ranked as the frozen food brand market share leader in Europe, Nomad distributes products to 17 countries. It acquisition of the Goodfellas and San Marco pizza brands from the 2 Sisters Food Group is expected to be finalized during the second quarter of 2018.
