Interim Results Announcement

Associated British Foods plc results for the 24 weeks ended 4 March 2023

Strong growth in Group sales

Very good footfall and margin better than expected at Primark

Statutory operating profit is derived from the adjusted operating profit after taking certain charges and credits as shown on the face of the condensed consolidated income statement.

Summary of Group performance

Food

• Sales increased across all businesses, up 23% in aggregate to £5,332m

• Adjusted operating profit up 13% to £373m

• Exceptionally strong adjusted operating profit performance in Ingredients, up 62%

• Sugar crop and inflationary challenges offset by strong Illovo performance

• Grocery adjusted operating profit broadly in line with pricing lagging input cost inflation as expected

• Agriculture adjusted operating profit down with difficult animal feed markets in UK and China

Primark

• Sales up 19% to £4,228m reflecting good growth in all countries

• Strong like-for-like sales growth driven by price and volume

• New stores performing strongly

• Adjusted operating profit of £351m, margin of 8.3%

• US: expansion into southern states to be anchored by new warehouse

• Announcement of restructuring and growth plan for Germany

• Digital development continues with rollout of improved website, UK trial of Click and Collect launched with geographic extension later this year

Shareholder returns

• £140m of the £500m share buyback completed in the period

George Weston, Chief Executive of Associated British Foods, said:

“This period was marked by extreme and volatile inflation in all our businesses. We have taken considerable action to mitigate these costs through operational cost savings and, where appropriate, pricing.

The performance of our Food businesses was resilient in aggregate, underpinned by an exceptional performance at Ingredients. We were very pleased with the improvement in Primark sales, which recovered strongly from the second half of the last financial year and drove operating profit margin up to 8.3%, higher than we had expected.

Primark has been very successful in this period in attracting new customers with its proposition of good quality merchandise combined with price leadership and well invested stores. We have had a very strong contribution from new stores opened in the period, and today we are announcing plans for the development of our Primark business in southern states of the US.”

For further information please contact:

Associated British Foods:
Tel: 020 7399 6545

John Bason, Finance Director

Eoin Tonge, Finance Director designate

Chris Barrie, Corporate Affairs Director

Citigate Dewe Rogerson:
Tel: 020 7638 9571

Holly Gillis +44 7940 797560

Angharad Couch +44 7507 643004

There will be an analyst and investor presentation at 09.00am BST today which will be streamed online and accessed via our website here.

2023 Interim Results Announcement