Aryzta shares fell as much as 5.7 per cent after the Swiss maker of pre-made bread dough and frozen convenience meals said revenue missed its own forecasts and growth will be erratic over the next 18 months.
Contract renewals in North America and customer changes in Europe will reduce growth by about 3 percent during that period, the company said in a statement Monday. Margins will remain under pressure in the second half, Aryzta also said.
The company is in a “fragile recovery mode, still facing a bumpy road ahead,” Jean-Philippe Bertschy, an analyst at Bank Vontobel in Zurich, wrote in a note.
Revenue rose 0.2 per cent on an organic basis in the six months ended Jan. 31. While the company’s underlying revenue growth momentum improved, it was still 18 to 24 months behind prior expectations, Chief Executive Officer Owen Killian said in the statement.
The shares fell 5.2 percent to 46.33 francs at 9:20 a.m. in Zurich, after making the steepest intraday drop in five months. That values the company at 4.3 billion francs ($4.4 billion). The stock has dropped 40 percent in the past 12 months.
News by Bloomberg, edited by Hospitality Ireland
