Greencore - will tomorrow's Interims repeat uncertain consumer warnings? Shares at 241p, up from recent 225p Low

Mark Watson-Mitchell - 26.05.2026

Tomorrow morning, Wednesday 27th May, the UK's leading manufacturer of convenience foods, Greencore Group (LON:GNC), will announce its Interim Results together with an update on bedding down its Bakkavor acquisition.

Its shares, now at 241p, could well respond positively to fresh estimates on current and future business prospects.

Quiches - a small part of the massive Greencore foods ranges

The Business

Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, the recently enlarged group generated approximately £4bn in revenue in FY25 and employs around 28,000 people.

The group supplies all major UK supermarkets, convenience and travel retail outlets, discounters, coffee shops, foodservice providers, and other retailers.

Its portfolio spans approximately 3,200 products across all meal occasions, including sandwiches, salads, sushi, ready meals, pizza and bread, chilled soups and sauces, quiche, ambient sauces, pickles, frozen Yorkshire puddings, dips and desserts.

Additionally, Greencore is a well-established national manufacturer of fresh meals for grocery retailers in the US, producing fresh meals, breads, dips, soups, sauces, and burritos from manufacturing facilities in California, Texas, and North Carolina.

Q1 Trading Update

On Thursday, 29th January, the group reported a strong first quarter for FY26, with revenue growing 5.4% to £499.8m, driven by a 0.5% increase in manufactured volume, surpassing the wider grocery market.

That performance, achieved before the mid-January acquisition of the Bakkavor Group, saw encouraging growth in categories such as sandwiches and sushi, with volume of premium sandwiches increasing by double digits.

The company launched 129 new products, including successful festive ranges and recently introduced high-protein and fibre options.

The group stated that the integration of Bakkavor was underway, with the combined entity expected to deliver at least £80m in annual cost synergies, and the enlarged business is trading in line with expectations.

Management Comment

At that time, CEO Dalton Philips stated that:

"Greencore delivered a strong performance in Q1. Despite a demanding prior-year comparison, we achieved revenue growth of 5.4% compared to Q1 FY25 and volume growth ahead of the market.

This performance reflects the focus and huge efforts of our colleagues, who worked tirelessly on behalf of our customers, especially during the busy Christmas period.

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.

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.

Our immediate focus is to execute our integration plans and deliver the benefits of the combination, and we look forward to updating the market as the year progresses."

Analyst Views

At Shore Capital Markets, their analysts, Darren Shirley and Clive Black, are estimating that the current year to end-September will see sales of £3,583m (£1,947m) with adjusted pre-tax profits of £171.2m (£105.1m), with earnings of 17.8p (17.7p) per share and paying out a dividend of 3.6p (2.6p).

The benefits of an integrated Bakkavor show through in the coming year to end-September 2027, with sales of £4,391m, profits of £254.3m, earnings of 22.9p and a dividend of 5.7p per share.

My View

I really like the way that this acquisitive group is building up its operations.

Its shares are cheap at the current 241p, looking for an early return (good trading permitting) to around the 306.50p level reached in early February this year.

Time to take another bite!

(Profile 30.01.25 @ 183p set a Target Price of 228p*)

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