7th Nov 2018 08:30
LONDON (Alliance News) - Dairy Crest Group PLC on Wednesday reported solid profit growth for its interim period, with its key Clover and Cathedral City brands doing well.
Dairy Crest's adjusted pretax profit for the six months to September 30 rose 13% year-on-year to GBP22.7 million. The reported figure fell 88% to GBP17.8 million, but the prior year had a GBP131.4 million exceptional gain mainly due to a reduction in pension scheme liabilities.
Dairy Crest is paying a 6.4 pence interim dividend per share, 2% higher than the 6.3p paid the same period a year before.
Revenue increased 2% year-on-year to GBP224.9 million.
Cathedral City cheese revenue was up 7%, though volumes fell 3%. Clover margarine revenue rose 9% and volumes by 8%, while Country Life butter revenue dipped 4% as volumes fell 16%.
Lastly, Frylight oil revenue slipped 22%, as volumes fell 23%.
Cathedral City benefited from higher prices due to increased milk input costs, and Dairy Crest said Clover has benefited from a move away from butter. The butter market is "challenged", the company said, due to high cream prices, while Frylight suffered due to a hot summer, which the firm said means people fried less.
Looking ahead, Dairy Crest is confident on meeting its own full-year expectations.
Chief Executive Mark Allen said: "We have delivered a good first half performance driven by our two largest brands, Cathedral City and Clover. Demand for our Functional Ingredients continues to grow."
"Innovation continues to shape the business and we have recently launched exciting new products in all of our categories," Allen continued.
"We understand the importance of staying ahead of the market and ensuring we are meeting consumers' needs. Food provenance, health and well-being are core themes which we will continue to focus on."
Shares were 0.2% higher on Wednesday at a price of 449.20 pence each.
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