Greencore Group plc -- 'Greencore' -- Pre-Interim Close Period Update.

Business Editors

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 2002

Greencore Group plc, the food and ingredients group, today announced that the following is the basis of an update that will be provided to analysts before Greencore's entry into the close period prior to its interim results which will be announced on May 29, 2002.

Integration and Disposals

Further progress continues to be made in reshaping and refocusing the Group following the acquisition of Hazlewood Foods in January 2001. Since the Chairman's supplementary statement at the Annual General Meeting on February 7, 2002, a further three businesses have been sold and consent has been obtained from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment for IAWS Group plc to increase its stake in Greencore's flour milling business, Odlums, to 50%. These four transactions will generate some Euro 43m of proceeds which will be used to pay down debt and will result in total proceeds to-date of approximately Euro 151m from the Group's disposal program. The Group remains on track to achieve its target of Euro 190m by May of this year. The Group also remains confident of the achievement of its pre-acquisition synergy target of Stg pound 7 million in its 2002/2003 financial year.

At the Annual General Meeting, the Chairman referred to three substantial integration projects that were ongoing. The consolidation of the ambient sauces and pickles businesses into the enlarged facility at Selby, Yorkshire is now successfully completed. In pizza, production has now commenced in the new facility in North Wales although the transfer of production to this site is likely to occur over an extended period up until the financial year-end. In cakes, the rationalization of the cost base in the Hull factory is well under way with a scheduled completion date of May 31, 2002. An improvement in its efficiency is being achieved, although this operation remains well short of its potential.

Trading

In Ingredients, trading is in line with expectations having taken into account the reduction of profits in sugar as a result of the previously reported issues on the sugar production campaign, which have been resolved. In Chilled and Frozen, sandwiches and sauces in particular continue to perform strongly. In Ambient Grocery, the value bread market continues to be very difficult while the Group's other businesses are generally trading in line with expectations. In Agribusiness, trading has been satisfactory in the context of a late start to the key spring selling season because of adverse weather conditions.

Earnings per share, adjusted to eliminate goodwill amortization and exceptional items, are anticipated to be a little below the comparable reported figure for the first-half of last year.

Group Chief Executive, David Dilger, said, "We have made substantial progress with our plans to refocus the businesses of the Group and to change the shape of our portfolio, concentrating on our businesses which have strong market positions and which are showing good growth potential. We expect to make further announcements in this area in the coming weeks. Appropriate management action is being taken in the small number of our businesses, which are currently under-performing. We remain confident that a stronger, higher growth Greencore will emerge from this transformation process."

Greencore is a major manufacturer and supplier of primary foods, food ingredients and prepared foods to industrial and consumer markets. Its core activities are sugar, malt, flour, related agribusiness and baked and packaged, chilled and frozen grocery products. The Group has operations in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Greencore's ordinary shares trade in Dublin and London, and information can be accessed on Bloomberg under the symbols GNC ID and GNC LN respectively and on Reuters under GNC.I and GNC.L. Additional information is available on Greencore's internet site: www.greencore.ie.