“Cuisine de France Owner’s Q1 Revenue Growth”

The Swiss-Irish bakery firm, Aryzta, reported a marginal increase in revenues during Q1 of the current fiscal year, the company informed its investors on Monday. Aryzta, famously recognised in Ireland as the proprietor of the Cuisine de France brand, sources partially baked products to clients ranging from fast food chains like McDonald’s and Subway to supermarkets such as Lidl, Aldi, and Dunnes Stores.

In its communication to investors, Aryzta stated that its Q1 revenue was €514 million, equivalent to an organic growth rate of 0.1 per cent, meeting the forecasts. Positive impacts from volume and pricing were partly offset by a negative mix effect, which is on an improving trend aligned with previous forecasts.

The group’s operations in Europe made up for the weak performance in its “rest of world” division, showing gradual improvement over the course of the quarter. The group emphasised how innovation helps in judiciously refining its portfolio range and withdraw from low-margin products. The group stated that this tactic, paired with ongoing cost control measures and efficiencies, ensures that the company is on the path towards enhanced performance.

Interim CEO of Aryzta, Urs Jordi, expressed that the company’s revenue trend is consistent with its predictions, with growth seen to increase gradually throughout the quarter. He noted that the company continues to counter the continuous inflationary pressures while offering customers cost and footfall benefits.

He further added that innovation aids in portfolio optimisation which, paralleled with the ongoing cost control measures, guarantees the company is on the path to show improved performance. “We reiterate our guidance to deliver low to mid-single digit organic growth for the 2024 financial year,” he said, and mentioned that the company remains dedicated to achieving mid-term targets through organic growth, business improvement, generation of free cash and total net debt reduction.

In related news, three former executives of Aryzta, along with its ex-CEO, Kevin Toland, have initiated legal actions against the bakery group following their exits in late 2020.

The previous chief executive for Europe at Aryzta, Gregory Sklikas, the former chief people officer Tony Murphy, and the past chief commercial officer of Aryzta North America, John Heffernan, are among those mentioned in legal documents submitted last week. They, along with a fourth individual, are pursuing a lawsuit for “specific performance” as per court documents, which indicates they are demanding remuneration they argue they are owed contractually.

These four men resigned from Arzyta towards the end of 2020, following a boardroom revolution which resulted in Urs Jordi, a Swiss food industry executive, becoming chairman in September of the same year. Following this, he then became the interim CEO just two months later as Mr Toland departed from the company.

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