Britain's Dairy Crest has said that its four key brands – Cathedral City, Clover, Country Life and Frylight – delivered ‘strong volume and revenue growth’ in the third quarter of its financial year.
In a trading statement covering the nine months to 31 December, Dairy Crest said that the four brands generated revenue growth of 10% for the third quarter and 6% for the nine month period.
Its Cathedral City cheese brand saw volumes and revenue up 10% in the quarter, while Frylight ‘returned to double digit volume and revenue’ growth in the period, despite seeing declines over the nine-month period.
Elsewhere, Country Life benefited from increased promotion in the period.
“Our key brands have delivered exceptional performance in the third quarter with all four generating both volume and revenue growth,” commented Mark Allen, the company’s chief executive.
“Demand for our functional ingredients is also increasing, with positive implications for price.”
Brexit Fears
On Brexit, Dairy Crest noted that there is ‘significant uncertainty’ around the Brexit process, and ‘the impact of a potentially disorderly exit is hard to predict.
‘Whilst our supply chain and customer base are primarily located in the UK, we are taking steps to reduce our exposure, including accelerating the purchase of ingredients and packaging materials.’
Analyst Viewpoint
Commenting on the business’ performance, Darren Shirley of Shore Capital Stockbrokers said, “ The Q3 period saw ‘strong’ volume and revenue growth across the key brands, an outstanding performance in a very tough UK grocery market. In Functional Ingredients demand for both D90 and GOS ‘continues to increase.
‘Notwithstanding Brexit uncertainty, management’s expectations remain unchanged, as do our forecasts’.
© 2019 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
