27th Mar 2014 10:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Meat-packing business Hilton Food Group PLC Thursday raised its dividend by 6.3% as profits rose in its financial year just ended, driven by strong growth in the UK, Holland and Denmark.
Hilton Food supplies major international food retailers in thirteen European countries and Australia, including the UK's largest supermarket chain Tesco PLC, as well as Ahol and Coop Denmark.
The specialist meat-packer declared a full-year dividend of 12.75 pence, a 6.3% increase on 12.0 pence a year earlier.
For the year ended December 29, 2013, the group reported a pretax profit of GBP24.9 million, compared with GBP24.7 million the prior year.
Hilton Food's net profit for the year increased 2.4% to GBP19.4 million, higher than its net profit of GBP18.9 million last year, which it said was partly down to reduced finance and taxation costs, which more than offset the slight reduction in operating profit because of start-up costs for its joint venture with Woolworths Ltd in Australia to construct a new meat-processing factory.
Revenue rose by 9.1% to GBP1.12 billion from GBP1.03 billion a year earlier, reflecting both the recovery of higher raw material meat prices and favourable exchange rate movements, Hilton Food said.
Volumes grew overall by 2%, with strong volume increases in Holland and Denmark, offset by volume reductions in Ireland and central Europe due to difficult trading conditions.
Hilton Food said that the short-term economic outlook in its European markets remains relatively challenging, and 2014 is likely to feature both comparatively high prices for meat and muted consumer spending, despite an improving overall economic outlook in some countries.
It also said that it will incur a high level of start-up costs in 2014, both in relation to the expansion of its Huntingdon site in the UK - to enable the planned UK volume increases for its Tesco contract - and to the new facility being constructed near Melbourne, Australia, as a result of its joint venture with Woolworths.
However Hilton Foods gave a more upbeat outlook for the medium-term outlook of the business.
"Benefiting from the new contract with Tesco in the UK and the expansion of the activities of Hilton's joint venture in Australia, Hilton's medium-term growth prospects are encouraging," the company said in a statement.
Hilton Food shares were trading at 500.50 pence per share Thursday morning, up 0.1% or 0.50 pence higher.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
Copyright © 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Hilton Foods