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Sports nutrition company Science in Sport (SIS) has hailed 2019 as a year of “rapid progress”, as it expects revenue growth to be “slightly ahead” of market expectations.
The annual growth was underpinned by the integration of PhD Nutrition - which it bought in December 2018 - with the brand growth rate doubling over historic rates.
The SiS brand, as well as both the company’s e-commerce and international operations, also continued to grow strongly.
Revenues for the year ending December 31 will therefore be ahead of market forecast, Science in Sport said, with sales momentum expected to continue into 2020 underpinned by a new PhD e-commerce site, already delivering “strong trading metrics”, and in-house protein powder line launched earlier this week.
Due to global increases in whey prices and foreign exchange losses however, the previously expected EBITDA profit of £300k is now forecasted to be a small loss, the company added.
“Our strategy is on-track and, in the year to 31 December 2019, we expect a record year of growth from PhD and another year of consistently high growth from SiS,” CEO Stephen Moon said.
“The board remains confident about the outlook for 2020 and beyond as we invest in our growth priorities of e-commerce and international markets. Gross margin remains robust, costs are tightly controlled and our cash position is healthy, allowing us to be confident in our long term growth trajectory.”
Science in Sport shares opened down 0.4% at 47.80p.
Morning update
In this week’s issue of The Grocer read about ice-tea company Tudor Drinks efforts to secure financial investment and “make its brands fly”, Savsé’s rescue out of administration and Naked Wines’ CEO resignation.
Visit https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/finance for more details.
The FTSE 100 opened 0.6% higher at 7,278.96pts.
In a mostly green-coloured index, grocers started the day in positive territory with Tesco (TSCO) up 1.3% to 232.80p, Morrisons (MRW) up 0.8% to 198.95p, Sainsbury’s (SBRY) up 0.4% to 212.60p and Marks & Spencer (MKS) up 1880.
Associated British Foods (ABF) opened 1.1% higher at 2,505p and Britvic (BVIC) up 0.7% at 965.50p.
Among the fallers Greggs (GRG) opened down 0.8% to 2,006p, Greencore (GNC) down 0.6% to 242.80p and Unilever (ULVR) down 0.2% to 4,484.50p.
Yesterday in the City
The FTSE 100 closed down 0.3% at 7,238.55pts.
Fallers saw Unilever (ULVR) close 0.8% lower at 4,490p, Tesco (TSCO) fall 1% to 230.20p, Imperial Brands (IMB) down 3.1% to 1,706.60p and Tate & Lyle (TATE) down 1.3% to 697.80p.
Greencore (GNC) closed down 0.9% to 243.50p and Hilton Food Group (HFG) fell 1% to 1,014p.
Among the risers, British American Tobacco (BATS) closed 3.6% higher at 2,963p, Reckitt Benkiser (RB) was up 0.7% to 5,935p and SSP Group (SSPG) ended the day up 2.5% at 648p.
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