Refresco Gerber reports solid 2015 results and delivers on strategic goals

Key indicators:

• Volume in full year 2015 increased 2.1% to 6,095.5 million liters (FY 2014: 5,968.9 million liters).
• Co-Packing volumes grew by 8.8% and amounts to 19.1% of total volumes.
• Gross profit margin per liter in euro cents amounted to 14.2 euro cents (FY 2014: 14.2 euro cents).
• Adjusted EBITDA increased 3.8% to €216.2 million (FY 2014: €208.2 million).

Highlights:

• Revenue at €2,016.4 million in 2015 compared to €2,036.9 million in 2014, a decrease of 1%, due to passing more favourable input prices on to customers.
• On a reported basis net profit amounted to €41.8 million (FY 2014: €38.7 million). Net profit, adjusted for one-off items, amounted to €77.8 million compared to €46.7 million last year.
• Adjusted EPS amounted to 97.8 euro cents compared to 62.9[1] euro cents in 2014.
• With a net debt of €457.5 million at the end of December 2015, net debt ratio, based on adjusted EBITDA, amounted to 2.1.
• Refresco Gerber acquires the PepsiCo bottling facility in Hamburg, Germany, including 10 year co-packing agreement. Transaction is expected to close in Q2 2016.

Key figures:

CEO Hans Roelofs: "Looking back on 2015 I am pleased to confirm that we have delivered in line with our outlook to grow volumes faster than the market. We additionally report a slightly better than foreseen gross profit margin per liter and end the year with a strong cash position. Revenue declined slightly due to the passing on of more favourable input prices to our customers, a dynamic that we have highlighted in previous quarters.

"On strategy, we took significant steps in pursuit of our goals. We successfully completed our IPO and refinancing while continuing to grow our business and maintain our margins. We continued investing in new bottling lines and new warehousing facilities, enhancing our manufacturing and supply chain capabilities, especially in the growth category of Aseptic PET. Our efforts to grow Co-Packing relative to Private Label also paid off with an 8.8% increase over the full year.

"Finally, I was pleased to announce on February 24, 2016 our intention to acquire PepsiCo's bottling facility in Germany. This latest acquisition in our buy and build strategy includes a 10 year Co-Packing agreement which will accelerate our Co-Packing business in Germany and strengthen our customer portfolio in this important region.

"For 2016, we expect an organic volume growth compared to 2015 in the low to mid-single digits and gross profit margin per liter to be marginally lower compared to 2015."

[1] EPS Q4 2014 and FY 2014 on a pro-forma basis.
[2] Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net profit are not a measure of our financial performance under IFRS. We apply adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net profit to exclude the effects of certain exceptional charges that we believe are not indicative of our underlying operating performance. Such adjustments relate primarily to substantial one-off restructurings, costs relating to acquisitions or disposals, refinancing and IPO relating costs.
[3] Adjusted EPS has been calculated based upon adjusted net profit, which excludes the costs related to the IPO, exceptional financing costs, restructuring costs and relating tax effect. The number of issued shares has been determined on 81.2 million for Q2,Q3 and Q4 2015. For Q1 2015 this number was determined on a pro forma basis of 74.3million shares. FY 2015 the number of shares was determined on a pro forma basis of 79.5 million. For all calculations in 2014 the number of shares has been determined on a pro forma basis of 74.3 million.

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