Greencore has had a strong start to its centenary year, reporting market-beating volume gains in the ‘golden quarter’ and revenue growth of 5.4% to £499.8m.
Despite a “demanding” year-on-year comparison, Greencore achieved 0.5% volume growth in its first quarter to 26 December against an industry average of 0.2%, powered by sandwiches, sushi and premium propositions. Greencore’s service levels remained over 99% during the quarter.
Sealing the deal with Bakkavor on 16 January, the group has also entered Q2 with eyes on an estimated £80m of annual cost synergies from the merger, with about £40m to be realised by the end of the first year following completion, in line with expectations.
“Following the end of a strong Q1 and as we begin our centenary year, we reached an important milestone earlier this month with the acquisition of Bakkavor,” said Greencore CEO Dalton Philips.
“It’s a great business, and we’ve all been so impressed by the new colleagues we’ve met over the past two weeks.
“As a larger business, we now have real potential to do even more for our customers, particularly through product innovation, whilst in parallel driving meaningful value for shareholders and wider stakeholders.”
A significant part of Greencore’s strong performance in recent years has been its own focus on innovation in a rapidly changing category. In Q1, it launched 129 new products, including new festive sandwich ranges such as a mince pie brioche wrap, a Yorkshire pudding wrap, and a festive cheeseboard quiche for Christmas.
Since Christmas, it has likewise jumped on the trend for “GLP-1 friendly” meals, with several ranges of high-protein, high-fibre products.
Greencore’s fortunes – and share price – have turned around under Philips’ stewardship, driven by operational changes under its Making Business Easier programme banner. Over 700 operational excellence projects are currently underway or planned at the group. Greencore’s shares have risen 381% during Philips’ time as CEO.
But the company’s “immediate focus” would be to execute integration plans and deliver on planned synergies, said Philips, who added he looked forward to updating the market on progress as the year continued.
Since August 2025, a dedicated integration team from Greencore and Bakkavor have been working together to develop integration plans, which have now launched. The businesses will now mostly operate in parallel for their first three months together, before integration begins in earnest.
“Trading is good, service levels excellent, and so it is great to see with the acquired Bakkavor in tow that Greencore has not been distracted by a big acquisition process,” said Shore Capital analyst Clive Black.
”There is a lot to do, but this is a high-quality team that is on it, and we look forward to updates in due course on trading and integration progress, the medium-term share price prize being potentially very, very attractive.”
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