Q1 sales down at Premier Foods

PREMIER Foods, which recently completed the sales of North Yorkshire-based Marlow Foods for £205m, today said it was looking to access the debt capital markets as it reported reduced sales over its first quarter.

For the three months ended March 31, group sales at Premier Foods were down 3.1% and volumes down 3.8%.

Premier sold Stokesley-based Marlow, the company behind the Quorn and Cauldron food brands, to Exponent Private Equity.

Robert Schofield, chief executive of Premier Foods, said this morning: “During a difficult Q1 trading period, we have continued to execute our strategy. With improved efficiency, we are in a good position to compete in an increasingly competitive marketplace. 

“We have also continued to take volume market share during the quarter albeit value share has lagged.  
 
“We have also made good progress on pricing. Our priority has been to obtain price rises to recover raw material inflation. 

“I am pleased to report that we have achieved the price rises we sought with all customers and these cover most of the raw materials inflation. 

“However, inflation remains an issue and we will continue to seek price rises to cover this.”

Premier predicts it will continue to “make progress” in 2011 and its plan to generate £80m of recurring cashflow was reiterated by the group this morning.
 
In a statement, Premier said: “Following our obtaining a credit rating, it remains our intention to access the debt capital markets. 

“We have been discussing with our banks and pension fund trustees the terms under which a bond could be issued and security shared with bond holders. The timing of a bond issue will be dependent on market conditions in the second half of 2011.