SSP Group, the leading operator of food and beverage outlets in travel locations worldwide, announced its financial results for the year ended 30 September 2014 showing profit up 20.8%, strong performances, and good opportunities going forward.
Highlights
• Operating profit up 20.8% in constant currency; up 12.3% to £88.5m at actual exchange rates
• Revenue of £1,827.1m, up 4.0% on a constant currency basis; stable at actual exchange rates
• Like-for-like sales growth of 3.3%; strong performances in UK, North America and Asia Pacific
• Operating margin up 50 basis points to 4.8%
• Operating cash flow generation of £83.3m, an increase of 24.3%
• Continued investment in the business with capital expenditure of £76.0m
• Balance sheet significantly strengthened with year-end net debt of £371.1m (2.3x 2014 EBITDA)
• New contracts secured included Beijing, Dubai, Sacramento and Stansted airports
• Good early progress in embedding stronger retail disciplines and leveraging best practice and international scale
Good performance across the group
Commenting on the results, Kate Swann CEO of SSP said: “We delivered a good performance across the Group with profit up 21%, and strong sales growth and cash generation. We also strengthened our balance sheet, providing capacity for continued growth.
“We made good progress on the implementation of our strategy and are particularly encouraged by the strong growth we achieved during the year in North America and Asia Pacific. We also began to deliver early results from our broad programme of initiatives to drive benefits from our international scale and are encouraged by the opportunities going forward.
“We have started the financial year in line with our expectations and looking ahead, whilst a degree of uncertainty always exists around passenger numbers in the short-term, we are well positioned to benefit from the underlying positive trends in our markets.”
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