ABF Associated British Foods Plc

By Razak Musah Baba

LONDON--Associated British Foods PLC (ABF.LN), the agricultural products supplier which owns the Primark fast-fashion brand, has turned in lower profit in its latest fiscal year, with its performance hurt by the strength of sterling against other currencies and a tough year at its sugar business.

ABF said pretax profit fell around 30% to 717 million pounds ($1.11 billion) in the 52 weeks to Sept. 12 from GBP1.02 billion in the previous fiscal year on a 1.1% decline in revenue to GBP12.80 billion.

ABF said its underlying performance was less weak. Stripping out exceptional items and other costs, pretax profit fell 7.2% to GBP1.03 billion compared with GBP1.11 billion.

"The good underlying trading achieved by our businesses in 2015 is expected to continue," Chairman Charles Sinclair said. "We intend to maintain investment in expansion opportunities, most notably for Primark."

The group is forecasting a turnaround at its sugar unit. "After three years of large profit declines for AB Sugar, we expect greater stability in profit next year ahead of the EU quota removal in 2017," Mr. Sinclair said.

But volatile currency markets could still weigh down on the group's earnings, notably at Primark and British Sugar, he said. "At this early stage we expect the currency pressures to lead to a modest decline in adjusted operating profit and adjusted earnings for the group for the coming year," he said.

-Write to Razak Musah Baba at razak.baba@wsj.com; Twitter: @Raztweet

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 03, 2015 02:59 ET (07:59 GMT)

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