AB Foods were 3.3% to the good at 9:30am in London trading following the release of a trading statement that showed revenues for the 40 weeks to 20th June were 2% higher than the previous period.
Although revenues rose on a constant currency basis AB Foods were still experiencing FX headwinds that meant at actual exchange rates revenue was flat.
Primark continued to carry the group, the budget clothing store enjoyed a 13% increase in sales from a year earlier helped by new store openings in the Netherlands and Germany.
Investors would have been pleased to see that their flagging sugar business was showing some signs of recovery. A long time thorn in the side of ABF’s operations the sugar unit has been helped by a pickup in sugar prices.
The outlook for their sugar operations are improving and may provide further upside in the coming year. “As quota sugar stocks reduce, EU sugar prices, as reported by the European Commission, have shown some signs of recovery, albeit moderated by continued low world sugar prices,” the company said in a statement
