By Jennifer Sieg
UK food producer Cranswick has regained strong positioning after inflation took its toll this year, reporting a 12.3 per cent increase in revenue in its half-year interim results today.
With “resilient” volume growth across all four UK food categories, revenue was up from £1,116.3m this time last year to £1,253.7m.
Adjusted Group operating profit also jumped from £68.4m to £85.5m, a 25 per cent increase.
Its rapidly expanding pig farms could be to thank too, as much of its capital investment programme continues “at pace”.
Two projects are underway for the food company, with a £62m multi-phased expansion project at the Hull Pork primary processing site and a £23m fit-out of a new houmous facility at Worsley, Manchester.
Adam Couch, Cranswick’s chief executive, said: “Our relentless focus on quality, service, innovation, and managing our cost base through this extremely challenging inflationary cycle, allied to delivering exceptional customer service, has underpinned these results.
“Momentum has continued through the start of the third quarter as our customers and the UK consumer continue to appreciate the affordability, value for money and versatility of our core pork and poultry categories.”
The firm said while it remains “cautious” of the wider economic environment, current market and geopolitical conditions, its outlook for the financial year is at the “upper end” of consensus.
“We have an excellent track record of deploying capital having invested £600m since FY16 in new facilities, capacity expansion and automation projects underpinned by an unrelenting focus on delivering efficiency improvements,” Couch added.
