Competition hits McBride’s bottom line
HOUSEHOLD and personal care products manufacturer McBride has seen interim sales slip due to promotional activity by the big brands.
The listed group has one of its largest production sites in Middleton, Manchester, as well as sites in Barrow, Bradford and Hull.
In the six months to December revenues slipped by 3% to £380m, while pre-tax profits were down by 35% to £3.7m.
The company said the figures also reflected the wind-down of some of its contract manufacturing business. Sales in Central and Eastern Europe were strong, and the France and Benelux business returned to growth.
Chief executive Chris Bull said: “We have witnessed sustained branded promotional activity that has impacted the performance of our UK business, and are taking appropriate actions to improve profitability. We have achieved in our first half further progress in the private label categories that underpin our long term growth plans, and another strong performance in Central and Eastern Europe.
“Trading since the end of December and our outlook for the year remain as indicated in our January trading statement. We continue to expect an improvement in performance in our second half given the extent of new product launches in the pipeline and cost saving initiatives underway. The scale of this improvement remains dependent on the extent of branded promotional activity and demand in the UK retail sector.”
The company also said group finance director Richard Armitage is leaving to pursue “an alternative career opportunity”.
