Inflation fails to dent progress at food producer as profits rise

Food producer, Cranswick, says its outlook for the financial year ending 30 March 2024 is now expected to be at the upper end of the market consensus of adjusted pre-tax profits of between £153.2m and £160.8m.

Publishing its unaudited results for the 26 weeks ended 23 September 2023, the Hull-based business reports revenues of £1.3bn (H1 2022: £1.1bn) and statutory pre-tax profits of £86.9m (H1 2022: £61.5m).

Adam Couch, chief executive officer, said: “Our strong start to the year continued through the second quarter. 

“Our continued positive progress is made possible by the substantial ongoing investment in our asset base, expansion of our pig farming operations and the quality and capability of our colleagues across the business.

“We have an excellent track record of deploying capital having invested £600m since FY16 in new facilities, capacity expansion and automation projects underpinned by an unrelenting focus on delivering efficiency improvements.

“Notwithstanding the many challenges that we, our industry and the wider economy continue to experience, I am confident the strengths of our business will support the further development of Cranswick in the current financial year and over the longer-term.”

Cranswick says its results reflect effective inflation recovery and resilient volume growth across all four of its core UK food categories.

But it adds it remains cautious about the potential impact of current market and wider economic and geopolitical conditions.