Finsbury Food 'confident' of continued momentum, raises dividend

UK baker Finsbury Food upped its dividend on Monday as it told investors that the strong growth seen in the tail end of its last trading year looked set to continue over the next twelve months.

Finsbury Food posted flat adjusted earnings of £25.5m for the year ended 29 June despite managing to carve out a 3.8% revenue increase to £315.3m during the period.

On a like-for-like basis, revenue was up 4%, while first-half sales crawled ahead 0.5% and second-half sales grew 7.5% thanks to the AIM-listed group's acquisition of gluten-free bakery Ultrapharm and the launch of some new cakes from Mary Berry.

Basic earnings per share were up 329% to 7.3p and pre-tax profits were 203% higher at

As a result of the strong end to the year, Finsbury Food hiked its dividend 6.1% to 3.5p.

Chief executive John Duffy said: "In what has been a continued challenging market environment, our sales growth and increased dividend demonstrates our ability to navigate more challenging times and our continued confidence in the prospects of the group.

"We are confident that the strong second-half performance will continue into the year ahead, as the core business continues to perform well with strong quarter one growth to date, outperforming Finsbury's respective markets."

As of 1045 BST, Finsbury shares had climbed 8.70% to 71.20p.