Belgium-based multinational Greenyard has reported positive third-quarter financial results, which show a turnaround in the previous sales decline of the fresh segment.

Greenyard’s total sales ended 6.4% higher year-on-year at €983.7m for the period, putting them up by 1.7% over the year's first nine months.

The strong results follow a couple of difficult years for the company, which led it to develop a 'transformational plan' to turn the business around.

"This increase resulted from solid growth in Long Fresh (+7.9%). The Fresh segment was able to reverse the
downward trend which lasted until the first half of the year into growth of 0.3%," Greenyard said.

In the third financial quarter, fresh sales landed at € 771.8m, an increase of 5.7% versus the same quarter last year.

Greenyard said it regained volumes in the market, while in the first half-year loss-making volumes were terminated, to a lesser extent combined with product shortages in stone fruit and avocados, which impacted sales growth.

As a result, sales for the first nine months amounted to €2,384.4m compared to €2,378m last year. 

In the Long Fresh division - which includes prepared fruit and vegetable products - sales amounted to €211.9m in Q3, a year-on-year increase of 8.9% compared to the same quarter of the previous financial year.

Sales for the first nine months of the financial year amounted to € 568.2m, a 7.9% rise. In the Frozen division, growth is due to an increase of volumes compared to last year, a better price/mix and the effect of price increases. Growth was
perpetuated primarily in the foodservice and industry customer segment