‘Transformational’ year for Tangerine
RESTRUCTURING costs and interest charges pushed Blackpool’s Tangerine Confectionery to a loss last year.
But the sweet maker behind brands such as Butterkist popcorn and Black Jack chews described 2008 as a “transformational” year that saw it double sales following the acquisition of the Monkhill Confectionery Company from Cadbury Schweppes.
According to recently filed accounts for the year to December 31 profits more than doubled from £63.4m to £131m. The business made an operating profit, after exceptional items but before restructuring costs, of £3.2m, down 10%.
After taking into account restructuring, as well as interest payments of £4.9m, Tangerine recorded a pre-tax loss of £4.7m, compared with a profit of £3.4m last time. Most of the restructuring charges were associated with the group’s £60m acquisition of Yorkshire-based Monkhill.
It spent £3.3m on administering the deal and handling the integration with half this spent on redundancy and staff costs at Monkhill which produces Butterkist popcorn, Barratt Sherbet Fountains and Jameson’s chocolate confectionery.
Since December Tangerine has embarked on a further reorgansiation that has seen it relocate the Sherbet Fountain production line to Pontefract, move the production of Fruit Salad and Black Jack chews from Spain to Blackpool and improve the marshmallow production line in Liverpool.
“Further progress is anticipated in 2009 as Tangerine is well set to deliver the benefits identified at the time of acquiring Monkhill,” said the directors’ report. “[We will] begin to implement brand new plans for the enlarged portfolio, as well as continuing to drive the growth of the confectionery sector by delivering an enhanced consumer proposition.”
Tangerine has an aggressive buy-and-build strategy backed by Close Brothers Growth Capital. It is now the fourth-largest confectionery maker in the UK, behind Cadbury, Mars and Nestle.
The business employs around 1,235 people nationally, including 400 at its Blackpool base. It also has sites in Liverpool and four in Yorkshire, at York, Cleckheaton and two factories in Pontefract, as well as a plant at Poole in Dorset.
No one at the business could be reached for comment.
