Share this page

First half trading and COVID-19 update

Given current market conditions and rapidly changing developments regarding COVID-19, Associated British Foods plc issues this update, further to our pre-close trading update of 24 February 2020.

First half trading
For the first half, adjusted operating profit will be ahead of our previous expectations, mainly due to higher margins for Primark and Grocery. As a result, adjusted earnings per share for the first half will now be ahead of last year on both a lease-adjusted and a reported basis.

COVID-19 update
Our priority continues to be the health and safety of our colleagues, customers and partners. Each of our businesses are closely monitoring the current and potential effects of the outbreak on their operations.

In our February trading statement we described the risk to supply of goods from our suppliers in China. Since then, the situation in China has improved, with most factories supplying Primark having re-opened. As a result, supply shortages from that country are now expected to be minimal.

However, with developments over the last week in Italy and, more materially, over the weekend in France, Spain and Austria, stores accounting for 20 percent of Primark’s selling space are now closed until the respective governments permit them to re-open.

These stores currently generate 30 percent of Primark’s sales. From the date of this announcement, we had expected sales of £190m from these stores over the next four weeks. The remainder of the estate, including the UK which represents 41 percent of sales, has seen like-for-like sales declines over the last two weeks and these have accelerated over the past few days as a result of reduced footfall. We are managing the business appropriately but do not expect to significantly mitigate the effect of the contribution lost from these sales.

Importantly, in aggregate we have not seen a material impact in our sugar, grocery, ingredients and agriculture businesses.

Given the effect of COVID-19 on Primark’s sales, it is too early to provide earnings guidance for the remainder of the current financial year.

The group has a strong balance sheet, substantial cash liquidity with some £800m of net cash at the half year and significant undrawn bank facilities.

The group will provide a further update with our interim results on 21 April.

For further enquiries please contact:
Associated British Foods
John Bason, Finance Director
Catherine Hicks, Corporate Affairs Director
Tel: 020 7399 6500

Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Chris Barrie, Jos Bienemen
Tel: 020 7638 9571

 

First Half Trading and COVID-19 Update

Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We’d also like to set optional analytics cookies to help us improve it. We won’t set optional cookies unless you enable them. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookie policy


Please adjust your preferences using the options below and save your preferences. Further information in respect of the specific cookies we use is available in our Cookie policy

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are required for the website to run. These cookies are always enabled because our website won’t work properly without them. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, or use a shopping cart. You can set your browser to block or turn these cookies off, but all or part of our website may become inaccessible or not function correctly.

Analytics cookies

These cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. These cookies may allocate a unique identifier to you so we can distinguish you from other website users whilst you are browsing our website, please see our Privacy Policy for further information.

: