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(Alliance News) - Premier Foods PLC on Wednesday said it turned to an annual profit and expects to beat forecasts for the financial year ahead.
The St Albans, England-based food maker reported revenue for the financial year ended March 28 up 2.8% to GBP847.1 million, swinging to a pretax profit of GBP53.6 million from a GBP42.7 million loss, as administration costs fell 51% to GBP76.6 million.
The UK Grocery business grew revenue each quarter and by 4.5% in the full-year. The firm's grocery categories and brands saw a "sharp increase" in volumes in the last three weeks of the financial year, as large numbers of consumers in the UK sought to build household stocks of some products during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sweet Treats revenue rose 5.6% over the year, with Mr Kipling cakes benefiting from further TV advertising and Cadbury Cake gaining on new Easter ranges. Also, Premier Foods launched the first products under its new Plantastic plant-based snacks brand.
Going forward, the company said it expects to make further progress this year, after delivering eleven successive quarters of UK revenue growth. Additionally, a new international strategy is being implemented with the objective of delivering sustainable profitable growth.
Chief Executive Alex Whitehouse said: "Revenue in the first quarter of financial 2021 are expected to be 20% ahead of the same quarter a year ago reflecting continued strong demand for the group's product ranges, particularly in our Grocery business. Consequently, we expect to exceed current expectations for financial 2021 revenue and trading profit despite incurring some additional operating costs in our supply chain. Our options for cash deployment and capital allocation will improve as a result of expected further net debt reduction in financial 2021."
Premier Foods shares were trading 6.5% higher in London on Wednesday at 63.50 pence each.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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