26th Mar 2007 07:00
Dairy Crest Group PLC26 March 2007 26 March 2007 Dairy Crest Group plc Pre-close Trading Update In line with its normal practice, Dairy Crest is issuing the following pre-closetrading update for the full year ending 31 March 2007. This financial year has been one of significant progress for Dairy Crest withthe announcement of three major transactions. In August 2006 we completed theacquisition of Express Dairies to create the UK's leading doorstep and middleground business. In October 2006 we completed the disposal of the majority ofour retailer brand cheese operations to First Milk. Thirdly in January 2007 wecompleted a significant overseas move with the acquisition of St Hubert, theFrench and Italian spreads business, from Uniq plc. These transactions are allin line with Dairy Crest's strategy to improve the quality of its earnings andreduce the Group's exposure to commodity markets. Alongside these important transactions, we have seen good growth from some ofour key brands including Cathedral City, Country Life Spreadable, Frijj and StHubert Omega 3. For the year as a whole trading has been in line with ourexpectations. Foods Cathedral City, our market leading cheddar brand, has once again delivereddouble-digit growth. Our continued focus on the health arena has resulted in afurther brand extension, Cathedral City Lighter, being launched in the last fewweeks. Our ongoing cheese business, which is now focused on branded and addedvalue products, has performed well benefiting from Cathedral City's growth andimproved returns from whey. The Stilton market has remained challenging. Clover and Country Life Spreadable have performed well with the latter, inparticular, showing strong growth. As indicated at the half year, UtterlyButterly and St. Ivel Gold have faced challenging market conditions and declinedduring the year. This has lead to a weaker overall performance in UK spreads. Tocapitalise further on the strength of our popular spreads brands we arecurrently focused on developing lower fat versions. The first of these, CountryLife Spreadable Lighter, will be launched in April. St Hubert is making good progress and results have been in line withexpectations since the acquisition completed in January. In particular St HubertOmega 3 continues to grow strongly. This has driven an increase in overallmarket share in France. Our joint venture, Yoplait Dairy Crest ('YDC'), has performed in line withexpectations with good growth from the Weight Watchers, YOP and Wildlife brandsoffsetting a weaker performance from Petits Filous. Dairies In Dairies we continue to focus on improving performance in our major retailmilk business. During the year we were pleased to be retained as a key supplierof fresh milk to Sainsbury's following a supplier review. Frijj, our marketleading fresh flavoured milk brand has performed strongly. In addition welaunched Country Life organic milk to take advantage of the growing organic milkmarket. Early signs are encouraging. The household business has performed well in the year. The benefits from theExpress Dairies acquisition are being delivered on time and we remain on trackto deliver synergies which peak at £9.0 million in 2008/09. Eight overlappingdepots have been closed to date and the administration office is expected toclose in the autumn. Following the Express Dairies transaction Dairy Crest has adoorstep customer base of around 1.6 million via its unique delivery network. Weare currently reviewing a number of new proposals to maximise this opportunity. Mark Allen, chief executive of Dairy Crest, commenting on the full year said: "This has been an active year during which we have significantly reshaped thebusiness. Dairy Crest traded solidly throughout the year and we are encouragedby the initial contribution from St Hubert spreads and the continued strongperformance of Cathedral City. We expect to report full year results in line with our expectations." Preliminary results for the year ending 31 March 2007 will be announced on 22May 2007. For further information, please contact: Dairy Crest Group plc Will Shaw, Investors 01372 472477Nicole Lander, Media 07801 235756 BrunswickSimon Sporborg 07974 982442Laura Cummings 07974 982492 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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