Global nutrition group Glanbia has reported its financial year results for 2019. Revenue was up from 2018 to €3.8 billion ($4.1bn), up 16.6% in constant currency on the prior year. The Ireland-based company said joint ventures took a larger proportion of the 2019 revenue, up €3.3million ($3.6m).
Siobhán Talbot, Group Managing Director, said that the 16.6% increase was driven by a strong performance by the Glanbia Nutritionals segment.
Talbot explained that this was in no small part due to two major acquisitions; weight-loss brand Slimfast in October 2019 and nutrient premix supplier Watson in February 2019.
With regard to the company’s existing portfolio Talbot said: “[Glanbia] saw broad-based volume growth with notable performances in vitamin and mineral blends, and healthy snack ingredients, underlining the continued consumer shift towards health and wellness.”
Despite this success, the Glanbia Performance Nutrition segment encountered challenges that meant earning were below expectations.
In the interim 2019 financial statement, Talbot said: “While we are very pleased with the performance of the SlimFast acquisition our like-for-like volume performance is disappointing. This is largely driven by specific challenges in key non-US markets.”
To address these shortcomings in 2020, Talbot said: “We have conducted a comprehensive business review and are taking actions to simplify our business, allowing us to concentrate on our core brands, and optimising our routes to market across channels and geographies.”
The Managing Director believes that this will allow the performance nutrtion sector to regain momentum in 2020.