Greencore reports €64m loss after company write-offs cost firm €123m

WRITE-OFFS of over €120 million sent Greencore’s bottom line tumbling to a pre-tax loss of €64m in the year to September, the food group said yesterday.

The company, which reported a pre-tax loss of €5.9m the previous year, took a €72m hit thanks to the closure of its sugar factory in Carlow and the centralisation of all sugar operations in Mallow. There was a further €51m bill from the company’s exit from its loss-making pizza business in Britain, which was given away to local management for free last month.

But the company also received tax credits of €17m in relation to these costs to ease some of the pain.