News
Premier Foods enjoys ‘really good start’ to year and raises profit expectations
The food manufacturing giant posted 19.2% year-on-year revenue growth, equating to £484.4m in headline revenue for the first half of the 2023-24 financial year. Meanwhile, statutory revenue was totalled at £494.1m.
Trading profit was up 19% to £67.5m, while adjusted earnings per share increased 12% year-on-year. As a result of this strong performance the firm confirmed that it had upped its profit expectations for FY23/24, with trading profit now projected to be 10% higher than it was at the end of FY22/23.
The strong performance was driven by a strong performance for its branded products, with branded revenue up 15.4%. Grocery was another area of growth, as revenue rose 24.6%.
During the period, Premier Foods also acquired protein brand FUEL10K in a deal worth £34m.
Premier Foods operates brand including Mr Kipling, Ambrosia and Bisto, and is headquartered in St Albans.
‘Performance demonstrates power of branded growth model’
Chief executive Alex Whitehouse said that firm had enjoyed a “really good start to the year”, during which it had made progress against all of its “strategic pillars”.
He continued: “We delivered branded revenue growth of nearly 16%, again maintained our trading profit margins and we continue to grow faster than our markets, gaining 113 basis points of share in our grocery categories. This performance once again demonstrates the power of our branded growth model and the capabilities of our team.”
Whitehouse added that it was positive to see food and drink inflation falling after a “challenging” past year for consumers.
“This has now given us the opportunity to lower promotional prices across a number of our major branded products such as Batchelors Super Noodles and Mr Kipling Slices,” he said.
Lastly, Whitehouse reflected on the recent acquisition: “We’re very pleased to have recently acquired the vibrant breakfast brand FUEL10K, providing us with the ideal platform to accelerate our expansion into breakfast and deploy our branded growth model.”
In other news, Morrisons has been accused of ‘fleecing’ its workers with a proposed change to its pension contributions scheme.
