Dairy Crest, the maker of Cathedral City cheese and Frylight cooking spray, has posted a trading update to coincide with its AGM, in which the dairy firm said that revenues were 6% higher than at this stage last year.
The company's two biggest brands, Cathedral City and Clover, 'outperformed' in the period, seeing revenues grow by 10%, it said.
A Good Start
"2018/19 has started as we expected, with our two most important brands, Cathedral City and Clover, delivering a strong performance," commented Mark Allen, the company's chief executive.
"While the butter market remains challenging, our spreads portfolio continues to go from strength to strength, demonstrating the benefit of our diversified portfolio. Our Functional Ingredients business is becoming more established and the customer base continues to build."
Allen added that the company will continue to place its focus on innovation, with several new product launches set to be launched by the end of this year.
"Following the May capital raise, our balance sheet is more robust and our expectations for the full year remain unchanged," he added.
Analyst Viewpoint
Commenting on the business' performance, Darren Shirley of Shore Capital Stockbrokers said, "Dairy Crest has confirmed solid trading in the three months to the 30th June that is in-line with expectations and so an unchanged FY2019 outlook.
"The robust performance has been driven by the Group’s 4 key Brands Cathedral City, Clover, Frylight and Country Life, with combined sales up 6% including 10% growth in the two largest brands. In Functional Ingredients, the business is becoming “more established” as the customer base “continues to build”.
"We reiterate our financial expectations, looking for CPTP of £66.7m, EPS of 35.2p, incorporating the recent capital raise."
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
