14th Jul 2015 06:42
LONDON (Alliance News) - Dairy Crest Group PLC Tuesday said its Cheese and Spreads businesses have performed in line with company expectations during the first quarter of its financial year and said its outlook for the full year remains unchanged.
The dairy products company said that aggregate sales in its four key brands Cathedral City, Clover, Country Life and Frylight, were in line with the first quarter of the prior year. Cathedral City and Frylight continued to perform strongly, Dairy Crest said, while Clover and Country Life sales fell in a declining butter and spreads market.
Dairy Crest said that it expects sales in its key brands to perform strongly as the year progresses, although it repeated that the combined performance of the Cheese and Spreads businesses will be weighted towards the second half.
The company added that the project to make demineralised whey powder and galacto-oligosaccharide at its Davidstow creamery is nearing completion and expects to start selling both products in this financial year. The first full-year benefit from these new products will come in the year ending March 31, 2017, it said.
"The year has started off as we expected. Higher sales of Cathedral City and Frylight are encouraging in markets that remain challenging. Our demineralised whey and GOS projects are nearing completion and we will see the full benefits next year. We are also making progress with the sale of our Dairies operations and we expect this to complete before the end of 2015. Dairy Crest is well positioned for profitable and sustainable growth. Our full year expectations remain unchanged," Chief Executive Mark Allen said in a statement.
Dairy Crest is holding its annual general meeting later on Tuesday.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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