Nomad Foods’ share price rose 5% on Monday after its fourth-quarter earnings beat analysts’ expectations.
The Birds Eye owner grew sales 4.3% to €793m for the three months to 31 December, beating the consensus estimate of $788m.
Its growth was accelerated by higher volumes, which were up 4.7% in the quarter.
It has led Nomad to raise its earnings-per-share forecast to €1.85-€1.89 for the coming year, up from €1.81-€1.85 previously.
It still expects organic revenue growth of between 1% and 3% and profits to rise between 2% and 4% in 2025.
CEO Stéfan Descheemaeker said the investments Nomad made it 2023 “took hold and delivered strong returns in 2024”, pointing to its accelerating volume momentum in the final three quarters and market share gains in each of the past two quarters.
“Growth can be choppy month to month and quarter to quarter but the underlying trendline of improvement is evident in our results,” he added.
Nomad’s organic revenue for the full year was up 1% to €3.1bn. The company lowered its growth expectations from 3%-4% to 1%-2% in November after a botched software implementation hit sales.
Nomad said sales temporarily fell by about 2.5% in the third quarter due to “greater than expected ERP disruptions in certain markets”.
But investors are seemingly confident the error is behind it with the company’s share price up almost 20% since the start of the year.
Descheemaeker said the company’s “innovation engine” was “significantly strengthened” last year, boosting its new products’ percentage of sales “while executing more impactful merchandising programmes that resonated with consumers at point-of-sale”.
In September, Nomad’s biggest brand, Birds Eye, gave its packaging the “biggest redesign in over a decade” alongside numerous new products across its range.
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