Quorn company feasts despite “sluggish” food sector growth

QUORN company Marlow Foods is combating the “sluggish” food market with strong sales, although pre-tax profits took a hit after forking out the interest charges on the repayment of an intercompany loan.

The principal trading company of Quorn and Cauldron brands, the company was sold along with holding company Quorn Foods Ltd in September 2015 for £550m.

It was acquired by the Monde Nissin Corporation, a Filipino firm, which will be pleased to see its investment is doing “extremely well” in challenging trading conditions with sales growth of 5.2% as turnover reached £158.1m for the year, up from £150.3m last year.

Pre-tax profits fell to £18.1m from £25.9m last year due to an interest charge payable on an inter-company loan, outside of the Marlow Foods group, of £9.5m which started on 1 January last year.

Though the accounting period was prior to the EU referendum, the company did acknowledge that sales growth in international markets was reduced by the poor performance of the pound, which was also damaged following the Brexit decision.

Earlier this year the company announced it would be expanding into Spain, France and Italy, and is making a £23m investment across the board to facilitate growth.

At the time, chief executive Kevin Brennan said: “It’s been a great start to the year as the trend amongst consumers to reduce meat consumption and look for alternatives continues to grow. Monde Nissin has made clear its belief in the long term potential of Quorn and has committed to investing significantly which is already having an impact.

“Our ambition has been to make Quorn a $1bn global business and we are well on the way to achieving this within the next 10 years with the launch into these three new markets serving to further accelerate our growth.”