Expanded US division expected to generate $600m in annual revenues

Greencore has said its US operations should have the capacity to generate up to $600m in annual revenues, once recently announced expansion plans come on stream.

At the end of last year, Greencore’s US division — which mainly provides food products to the 7-Eleven and Starbucks chains — had an estimated sales capacity of $350m.

This figure, according to management, will rise to $600m once a new sandwich manufacturing facility it intends to build at Quonset, Rhode Island, is up and running early next year.

Greencore announced its Rhode Island plans — which will see it service its existing markets in New England and develop opportunities closer to New York — in March, a month after acquiring Minnesota food-to-go producer Lettieri’s.

The company also announced a £6m investment in its Jacksonville, Florida, facility in order to manufacture frozen food-to-go products for Starbucks.

The £20m Rhode Island facility is expected to begin production next spring, while Florida — with a revenue capacity of around £60m — will come on stream during the fourth quarter of Greencore’s current financial year, which runs to the end of September.

The activity has already seen Greencore follow through on its promise to shareholders, made at the turn of the year, to adopt a two-pronged approach — via organic and acquisition-led progress — to growth in the US.

Speaking yesterday on the back of a strong set of first-half results, group CEO Patrick Coveney said there remains big growth potential on the other side of the Atlantic, although it will be a long time until the US overtakes Britain as Greencore’s core marketplace.

That said, yesterday’s first half figures saw Greencore’s US revenues rise by 25.7% on a like-for-like basis.