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UK conglomerate owning Primark (value fashion retail) plus sugar, grocery, ingredients and agriculture businesses.
UK conglomerate owning Primark (value fashion retail) plus sugar, grocery, ingredients and agriculture businesses.
Primark, which sells clothing at low prices mostly through its own stores, produces most of the group's profit, while the food businesses of sugar, groceries, ingredients and animal feed sell to manufacturers and retailers. Wittington Investments, the Weston family's holding company, controls it.
In one line: A diversified staples/retail conglomerate, like a General Mills combined with a Ross Store.
Moat: narrow (scale, brand, distribution). Primark's no-online, low-cost store model and scale in sugar/ingredients give cost advantages in each segment.
Headquarters: London, UK · Founded: 1935 · Employees: 140,000
Size Associated British Foods (ABF.L) is a United Kingdom Consumer Staples company (Food: Major Diversified) with a market value of $18.7B, the 36th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £1,990 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 11.2%, against -2.9% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — 2nd highest of 9 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 0.6% over the last twelve months (peer median +7.0%); the operating margin is 7.1% (peer median 18.8%).
Valuation It trades at 13.5× forward earnings against a peer median of 21.4× (4th cheapest of 9).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 8% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +7%, so the hurdle is +1 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 3.6 points below its cost of capital (10.6% WACC).
Credit Associated British Foods has 1 bond outstanding ($534M), rated A by the agencies and trading like AAA at a weighted spread of 10 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 27 Apr 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2026 | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £19.6B | £19.6B | £19.4B | £20.1B | £19.8B |
| Revenue growth | — | +1% | -3% | +2% | — |
| Gross profit | £1.39B | £1.39B | £4.70B | £4.91B | £4.31B |
| EBITDA | £2.44B | £2.44B | £2.62B | £2.82B | £2.39B |
| Net income | £930M | £930M | £1.02B | £1.46B | £1.04B |
| Free cash flow | £1.27B | £1.27B | £1.15B | £1.79B | £690M |
| Capital expenditure | £1.25B | £1.25B | £1.23B | £1.18B | £1.07B |
| Total debt | n/a | £3.85B | £3.69B | £3.68B | £3.72B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Associated British Foods ABF.L | $18.7B | +11% | +1% | 7% | 13.5× | 7.8% |
| H&M Hennes & Mauritz HM-B.ST | $29.1B | +12% | -4% | 9% | 22.3× | 4.5% |
| Industria de Diseno Textil ITX.MC | $206B | +20% | +6% | 20% | 27.3× | 15.3% |
| Suedzucker SZU.DE | $2.57B | -5% | -5% | -3% | 34.2× | 0.7% |
| Tate & Lyle TATE.L | $3.34B | +53% | +16% | 9% | 15.2× | 10.8% |
| Bunge Global BG | $19.0B | -20% | +55% | 4% | 9.2× | n/a |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | ABF.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +8.5% | +4.6% | 5th highest of 9 |
| 6-month return | +11.2% | -2.9% | 2nd highest of 9 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -13.0% | -23.9% | 2nd highest of 9 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +0.6% | +7.0% | 4th lowest of 9 |
| Operating margin | 7.1% | 18.8% | 2nd lowest of 9 |
| Forward P/E | 13.5× | 21.4× | 4th cheapest of 9 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 7.8% | -3.9% | 4th most demanding of 8 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +7.1% | +3.9% | 4th highest of 8 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +0.7 pp | -2.9 pp | 4th most demanding of 8 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -3.6 pp | +11.8 pp | lowest of 9 |
| EV / EBITDA | 6.9× | 9.9× | cheapest of 6 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.2× | 3.1× | 3rd least indebted of 6 |
| Bond spread | 10 bp | 106 bp | tightest of 4 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Associated British Foods ABF.L | United Kingdom | $18.7B | +11% | +1% | 7% | 13.5× | 7.8% | +7.1% |
| General Mills GIS | United States | $19.0B | +2% | -4% | 15% | 11.4× | -6.7% | +0.3% |
| Yihai Kerry Arawana 300999.SZ | China | $21.3B | -8% | +2% | 1% | 37.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Nestle India NESTLEIND.NS | India | $26.0B | -13% | +22% | 21% | 59.4× | 36.6% | +11.7% |
| Kraft Heinz KHC | United States | $29.2B | +5% | -2% | 17% | 12.5× | -3.9% | -1.0% |
| Conagra Brands CAG | United States | $7.28B | +8% | -2% | 11% | 10.6× | -4.9% | +0.2% |
| SamyangFood 003230.KS | South Korea | $6.70B | -9% | +38% | 23% | 16.3× | -6.6% | +29.4% |
| CSPC Innovation Pharmaceutical 300765.SZ | China | $6.48B | +14% | +117% | 26% | 40.6× | 13.9% | +10.5% |
| Hebei Yangyuan Zhihui Beverage 603156.SS | China | $6.06B | -15% | +12% | 28% | 26.5× | 9.9% | +3.9% |
Associated British Foods has 1 bond outstanding with $534M face value. The agencies rate it A; its bonds trade like AAA. Weighted yield 5.11%, a spread of 10 bp over government bonds.