McBride coping with rising costs

DETERGENTS maker McBride has said that trading remains in line with expectations and that sales were up 1% on last year.

The company said that the increase was achieved despite the loss of revenues from a low-margin business in Spain it exited earlier this year, and a strong trading period in the prior year when it benefited from extra sales of anti-bacterial products driven by the swine flu scare.

McBride, which has a major operational base in Middleton, Manchester, said that raw materials prices were continuing to rise as predicted last month when it announced its annual results, but added that “initiatives to recover these increases are progressing to plan”.

The company also said that restructuring programmes announced earlier this year, which led to a number of layoffs at its Middleton site, the closure of a facility in Italy and a rationalisation of its UK supply chain, have been completed on time and would deliver the expected benefits. Last month, the firm took a one-off hit of £12.8m in relation to its restructuring efforts, but said that they would deliver annual savings of around £6.5m.

“Whilst our markets remain highly competitive, we continue to see growth in our core categories and the benefit of ongoing cost reduction programmes,” said chief executive Chris Bull.

“We will maintain our focus on growing those categories in which we can add value to our consumers and developing stronger relationships with our key customers.”