Associated British Foods plc (LON:ABF) has announced its results for the 24 weeks ended 28 February 2026
Financial Headlines
| 24 weeks ended28 February 2026 | 24 weeks ended1 March 2025 | Actual currencychange | Constant currencychange | |
| Group revenue | £9,470m | £9,509m | in line | (2)% |
| Adjusted operating profit | £691m | £835m | (17)% | (18)% |
| Adjusted profit before tax | £663m | £818m | (19)% | |
| Adjusted earnings per share | 70.7p | 83.6p | (15)% | |
| Operating profit | £657m | £710m | (7)% | |
| Profit before taxation | £632m | £692m | (9)% | |
| Basic earnings per share | 62.7p | 71.0p | (12)% | |
| Gross investment | £534m | £557m | (4)% | |
| Free cash flow | £71m | £27m | ||
| Net cash before lease liabilities | £3m | £201m | ||
| Total net debt | £3,027m | £2,772m | ||
| Interim dividend | 20.7p | 20.7p | in line |
Operating profit is stated after exceptional charges and other items as shown on the face of the condensed consolidated income statement. In H1 2026, total exceptional items were £8m, which relates to a non-cash impairment charge (H1 2025: £104m). The Group has defined and outlined the purpose of its Alternative Performance Measures (‘APMs’) in note 14. These measures are used within the Financial Headlines and in this Interim Results Announcement.
References to changes in revenue and adjusted operating profit in the following commentary are based on constant currency and are in comparison to the prior year, unless stated otherwise.
George Weston, Chief Executive of Associated British Foods, said:
“We knew the first half of this financial year was going to be challenging and that’s borne out in our financial results. However, we still expect improved Group performance in the second half.
Primark continued to make strong progress in re-energising its customer proposition in a difficult clothing market. Our actions in the UK since the autumn drove like-for-like sales growth and market share gains. Whilst trading in Europe was weak, the initiatives and investments to improve performance are underway. Primark continued to invest in stores and digital capabilities across all its markets to deliver its ambitious growth opportunities over the medium and long term.
Our Grocery and Ingredients businesses performed as we had expected them to, with our US businesses impacted by weak consumer demand. Our international Grocery brands delivered good sales growth and are positioned for a stronger profit performance in the second half. In Sugar, the results were below our expectations and given the current market conditions, we are more cautious on the outlook.
We are managing the impacts of the Middle East conflict. Given what we know today, we expect the cost consequences in 2026 to be manageable. However, there is a risk to Primark sales if the conflict persists and consumer spending deteriorates. Our strong balance sheet underpins the Group’s resilience.”
Group
| • | Revenue decreased 2% and adjusted operating profit declined 18%, reflecting continued investment in growth and certain cost impacts more weighted to the first half of the year |
| • | Performance across all segments was broadly as expected, with the exception of Sugar |
| • | Adjusted EPS decreased 15% to 70.7p, after benefitting from the accretive impact of share buybacks |
| • | Invested £534m in growth initiatives centred around capacity, capabilities and new technology |
| • | Free cash flow of £71m reflects normal seasonal working capital outflow |
| • | Appointment of Joana Edwards as Group Chief Financial Officer and Eoin Tonge as Primark Chief Executive |
Segmental performance
| • | Retail: | |
| • | Sales grew 2%, with good execution of new store openings contributing 4% to growth | |
| • | In the UK, like-for-like sales grew 1.3% and Primark gained market share in a difficult retail environment, reflecting strong progress to re-energise our customer proposition | |
| • | In Europe, where consumer confidence remains weak and our initiatives to improve performance are at an earlier stage, like-for-like sales declined 5.6% | |
| • | Adjusted operating margin was 10.1% | |
| • | Significant increase in investment across product, marketing, digital and technology to drive like-for-like sales growth | |
| • | Grocery adjusted operating profit declined 20%, primarily due to our US oils businesses including our joint venture, as expected | |
| • | Ingredients adjusted operating profit declined 7%, due to soft market demand in bakery ingredients in the US | |
| • | Sugar adjusted operating loss of £27m, mainly as a result of lower average selling prices in Europe | |
| • | Agriculture adjusted operating profit of £6m | |
Shareholder returns
| • | Strong balance sheet with a leverage ratio of 1.2x at 28 February 2026 |
| • | Interim dividend in line with prior year at 20.7p per share, reflecting confidence in the Group outlook |
| • | Completed £187m of share buybacks in 2026 to-date*, with a further £63m to be completed in this financial year |
* As at 17 April 2026
Full year outlook
The phasing of Group profit was always expected to be weighted to the second half in 2026. Our full year outlook is currently unchanged, with the exception of Sugar where we now expect an adjusted operating loss in 2026. We continue to expect Group adjusted operating profit and adjusted EPS in 2026 to be below last year.
Retail
In a consumer environment that is challenging in most of our markets, we are continuing to strengthen our customer proposition, including our product offer, price perception and digital customer engagement. We are already seeing the benefits from our renewed focus and investment in the UK, which delivered like-for-like sales growth and market share gains in H1 2026. Similar initiatives are now in place in Europe and we expect these to drive improved performance. An encouraging start to spring/summer trading in March was followed by softer trading in April, as we started to see the impact of the Middle East conflict on the consumer.
The rollout of new stores in Europe, the US and through our franchise model is expected to contribute around 4% to sales growth in 2026. We are targeting white space growth to continue contributing around 4% to 5% per annum to our growth in total sales for the foreseeable future.
We continue to expect adjusted operating profit margin for the full year to be approximately 10%. Given what we know today, we expect the cost impacts from the Middle East conflict to be manageable in 2026 given our hedging arrangements and cost mitigations. However, we remain alert to potential further deterioration in consumer spending and to the longer-term impacts on costs, such as energy, freight and fabric, all of which will depend on the duration of the disruption.
Food
In Grocery, we expect our international brands to deliver good growth, underpinned by investment in marketing and product innovation. US consumer weakness impacted our cooking oils businesses in H1 2026 and we remain cautious on the outlook. Overall, we continue to expect Grocery adjusted operating profit in 2026 to be moderately below last year, with a strong sequential improvement in profit in H2 2026 compared to H1 2026. This is primarily driven by the timing of innovation and marketing in our international brands, a reduced impact from high cocoa costs and US tariffs, as well as normal seasonality in Grocery and other phasing impacts.
In Ingredients, we expect sales growth in our yeast and bakery ingredients business, with the exception of the US. We also expect sales growth in our specialty ingredients portfolio. However, as a result of increased investment and US consumer weakness for bakery ingredients, we continue to expect adjusted operating profit in Ingredients to be moderately below last year.
In Sugar, European profitability in H1 2026 was impacted by lower average selling prices and higher costs of production. In Africa, rain-related impacts reduced production in Tanzania. We do not expect to offset the H1 2026 operating loss in H2 2026 and so we now expect Sugar to deliver an adjusted operating loss for the full year in 2026. At this stage of the year, we have limited visibility of the size and quality of the 2026/27 beet crop in Europe, but early indications are that the European sugar market will remain in surplus in 2027. Given the current market environment, including a lack of visible inflection point in European sugar prices, there is no evidence yet of a recovery in our Sugar business in 2027.
In Agriculture, following a weak performance in H1 2026, we expect adjusted operating profit in 2026 to be below 2025.
We are managing the impacts of the Middle East conflict on the performance of our Food businesses. Given what we know today, we expect the direct impact on the Group’s operating costs such as energy and freight to be manageable in 2026 given our hedging arrangements and cost mitigations. We do not yet have certainty on the indirect impacts, such as consumer demand, which will depend on the duration of the disruption. The longer-term impact on input costs such as energy, agrichemicals and packaging, is also unclear at this stage. However, our businesses remain agile and focused on mitigations as conditions continue to evolve.
Review of the Group structure
Associated British Foods has announced today that following an in-depth review of its Group structure, as announced on 4 November 2025, the Board of ABF has decided to proceed with a demerger of its Retail business (Primark) from its Food business (FoodCo). On completion of the demerger, ABF shareholders will hold shares in both listed entities. Please see today’s separate announcement for further details.
