Top story

Losses continued to mount at pork giant Karro Food Group in its first full year under CapVest ownership as Brexit-related inflation, weak pork markets and one-off charges sent it further into the red.

Newly filed accounts at Companies House show pre-tax losses for the year to 29 December 2018 rose to £9.2m, compared to a £4.8m loss in the shorter 35-week period to the end of December 2017.

Sales rose to £638.2m from £442.5m last year, though this represented a 2.9% decline on a pro-rata basis.

Executive chair Di Walker said the group was “pleased with the performance of the business” as it “maintained turnover levels and saw only slightly reduced EBITDA despite a backdrop of margin pressures including Brexit-related inflation, retailer pricing pressure, weak pork markets and weak international markets”.

EBITDA rose to £28.4m from £19.5m, but headline profits were hit by a number of one-off charges related to acquisitions, legal expenses and writedowns.

Read the full story at thegrocer.co.uk/finance later this morning.

Morning update

This week’s edition of The Grocer has the story of how alternative rice producer Fullgreen has launched yet another £600k fundraising round to underpin its push into the US and how Europe’s largest biltong and jerky manufacturer Meatsnacks Group slipped further into the red before its recent buyout.

To read these stories and more to go thegrocer.co.uk/finance later today.

On the markets this morning, the FTSE 100 is up a further 0.3% to 7,443.4pts so far today.

Early risers include McBride (MCB), up 1.5% to 79.2p, Ocado (OCDO), up 1.3% to 1,116.5p and PZ Cussons (PZC), up 1% to 208.5p.

Fallers so far this morning include Domino’s Pizza Group and Bakkavor after their rise yesterday, down 5.4% to 264.6p and 3.1% to 125.6p respectively. Also down is Kerry Group (KYGA), down 1.1% to €106.70 and Premier Foods (PFD), down 0.9% to 33.1p.

Yesterday in the City

The FTSE 100 ended yesterday up 0.2% to 7,424.4pts as the market reaction to commentary suggesting a more benign rates environment in the US.

Domino’s Pizza Group jumped 10.6% to 279.8p after it was revealed to be in “advanced talks” to replace its CEO after a period of dispute with its British franchisees and a recent share price slump.

Also on the up was Bakkavor, which rose 7.5% back to 129.6p after a recent share price dip.

Other risers yesterday included Hilton Food Group (HFG), up 2.2% to 971p, Carr’s Group (CARR), up 2% to 150p, PureCircle (PURE), up 1.6% to 255p, Coca-Cola HBC (CCH), up 1.5% to 2,958p and Ocado (OCDO), up 1.4% to 1,102.5p.

Fallers yesterday included Reckitt Benckiser (RB), down 3% to 6,310p, Devro (DVO), down 2.3% to 210p, McBride (MCB), down 2.3% to 78p, B&M European Value Retail (BME), down 2.2% to 327.5p, McColl’s (MCLS), down 1.7% to 68p and PayPoint (PAY), down 1.7% to 1,048p.

Topics