Clover and Cathedral City boost Dairy Crest sales, profit
Cathedral City and Clover owner Dairy Crest posted a 13% jump in interim pre-tax profit on Wednesday as revenue edged higher.
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In the six months to 30 September, adjusted pre-tax profit rose to £22.7m on revenue of £224.9m, up 2% on the same period a year ago, with solid growth from both of its leading brands. Cathedral City saw sales grow 7% in the half, while Clover sales rose 9%.
It was a less cheery picture for Country Life and Frylight, however, with sales there down 4% and 22%, respectively.
The company said butter markets remained "challenged", with the cream price - which determines the input costs for Country Life - down by 25% over the 12 months to September but still 25% higher than two years ago. This meant that Dairy Crest had to maintain its strategy of reducing investment and marketing in its lowest margin product.
Meanwhile, sales of Frylight were lower as the summer heatwave meant consumers were frying less.
Dairy Crest upped its interim dividend by 2% to 6.4p a share and maintained its expectations for the full year.
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. We understand the importance of staying ahead of the market and ensuring we are meeting consumers' needs. Food provenance, health and wellbeing are core themes which we will continue to focus on."
At 0808 GMT, the shares were up 1.6% to 455.20p.