Associated British Foods plc (ASBFY) Q1 2026 Sales/Trading Call Transcript

Joana Edwards
Interim Finance Director

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the call. This morning, we published a trading update for the first quarter of ABF’s 2026 financial year, that is for the 16 weeks to 3rd of Jan. We have brought forward this update, and this is due to the weaker-than-expected performance in Primark over the period. The period has just closed. We are still finalizing the Q1 numbers for the individual businesses and for the group. However, the release provides our best estimates of where we expect to close the period. George would very much wanted to be on this call. It hasn’t been possible given the timing is with our businesses in the U.S. this week and is currently on a flight back. In the light of the information of this release, we are updating the market as soon as possible. And I’ve asked Eoin Tonge to join today to share some additional color on the performance in Primark. Before we move to Q&A, I’ll briefly set out the key elements of today’s trading update. I’ll start with Primark. Primark’s total sales were up approximately 1%. Performance between our different markets was mixed with a continuation of the same trends we had in the second half of 2025 and which we highlighted in November. So in the U.K., total sales grew 3%, like-for-like sales grew 1.7% and Primark gained market share in a