Wynnstay Group - Project Genesis is working, shares 322.50p, SQC TP 380p

Mark Watson-Mitchell 01.12.2025

This morning Wynnstay Group (LON:WYN), the agricultural and merchanting specialist, has issued a Trading Update for its year to end-October, showing a performance ahead of expectations and its shares are moving upwards in reaction.

The Business

Founded in 1918 in Wales as a farmers' cooperative, with its shares gaining a listing on AIM in 2004, today Wynnstay is a leading supplier of agricultural products and services, with the ability to offer the whole package to farmers.

Spanning three main divisions; Feed, Arable and Country Stores, customers can access all the necessary farming inputs through a variety of distribution channels.

With over 20,400 commercial relationships with farmers, the group operates from 11 manufacturing sites across the country, with some 869 employees, as well as 127 commercial vehicles within its fleet.

Feed - Wynnstay manufactures and supplies a wide range of feeds and animal nutrition products, principally for the dairy, beef, sheep and poultry sectors.

The Group operates two feed mills and three blending plants, manufacturing feed that is offered in compounded, blended and meal forms, and sold both in bulk and in bags.

Bagged feed is predominantly sold through the Group's store network.

Wynnstay also sells a range of raw materials for feed through its Wynnstay and Glasson Grain brands.

Farmers are offered grain and combinable crop marketing services through the GrainLink business.

Arable - The Group supplies a full range of high-quality, Wynnstay-branded agricultural fertiliser products (compound, straight, and blended), and the Glasson fertiliser blending operation is the UK's second largest.

The Group’s specialists offer farmers bespoke fertiliser programmes.

These address specific soil conditions, thereby increasing the efficiency of the fertiliser and improving plant growth.

It also supplies a wide range of seeds (spring, autumn, grass, maize, catch & forage, and environmental seeds), and operates a major seed processing facility in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

Stores - Wynnstay operates a network of 51 stores catering mainly for the needs of farmers but also rural dwellers.

Stores are mostly located within the livestock areas of England and Wales.

The store network is supported by multiple routes to market, including a digital sales platform, sales trading desk, regional field sales teams and specialist catalogues.

Trading Update

The group anticipates that its adjusted profit before tax for the year to end-October to be approximately £9.0m, modestly exceeding market expectations and driven by the early success of Project Genesis which has improved pricing, margins, and operational efficiencies.

The Feed & Grain segment saw higher profitability despite lower volumes due to cost savings and capacity expansion, while Arable profits increased with strong fertiliser and seed sales.

The company ended the year with net cash of £26.4m, providing investment capacity, and incurred non-recurring costs between £5.4m and £5.9m related to restructuring and operational closures.

Outlook And Management Comment

Early trading in the new financial year is in line with the Board's expectations.

The Group remains focused on disciplined execution of Project Genesis and delivery of targeted margin, cost and efficiency gains.

CEO Alk stated that:

"The Group has delivered a strong performance for the year with tangible benefits of Project Genesis already materialising.

This provides a strong platform for us to continue to invest in the business, supporting our long-term growth ambitions and we look forward to providing a further update on this at the time of our Full Year results."

Analyst’s Views

Analysts Akhil Patel and Clive Black, at Shore Capital Markets, have a net asset value on the Group’s shares of some 590p each.

For the year to end-October their estimates are for slightly lower revenues of £583.0m (£613.1m), while its adjusted pre-tax profits could come out at £9.0m (£7.6m), lifting earnings to 28.5p (23.1p) per share, with a 17.8p (17.5p) dividend.

The coming year could see £634.0m revenues, £10.0m profits, 31.6p earnings and a dividend of 18.1p per share.

My View

Between now and Monday, 9th February 2026 when the Finals are due, I expect that its shares will improve from trading the 320p/340p price range, lifting up to the 380p level reached in February this year.

I now set a Target Price of 380p.