Iglo Group, the European owner of Birds Eye, saw a 0.9% slide in constant currency sales during the second quarter due to “tough market conditions”.
The frozen food group said the decline in like-for-like revenues was broadly in line with the wider market. Its second quarter EBITDA was flat year-on-year and down 3.1% on a constant currency basis. Gross margin increased of 2.3% year-on-year.
Elio Leoni Sceti, chief executive said: “Tough market conditions continue to impact the sector with consumer spending under pressure across all European markets. This has resulted in the defined frozen category declining by 0.9% in the second quarter. Despite this, Iglo has delivered value share growth in seven out of 12 markets. We have heavily invested in our new campaign to support not only the core but also to drive the launch of the new innovations.
“While we expect markets in the second half of the year to remain challenging, we are confident that our Better Meals Together strategy will rejuvenate the frozen food category as we continue to invest in the strength of our brand.”
The group said frozen foods had not been immune from the challenging European retail market, meaning two of the group’s three key markets saw declines in market size.
In terms of NPD, the key launch of the quarter was its Inspirations platform, which Iglo said had “performed well across all markets where it has been launched” and most notably in the UK where it has seen net sales of over €7m in the quarter.
It also noted that its Italian business is recovering, having delivered nine successive months of net sales growth and four successive months of value share growth to June 2014.
In July 2014, the group refinanced its debt through the issuance of new term debt and a bond listed on the Luxemburg Stock Exchange. The deal enables it to access additional investors and is predicted to yield annual interest savings of around €14m.
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