is upbeat
Double digit growth in Dairy Crest's added value business during the first half was tempered by difficult conditions in commodity areas.
Dairy Crest boss Drummond Hall remained upbeat about the company's prospects, but said trading conditions in commodity cheese and liquid milk remained "challenging".
Analysts reduced full year profit forecasts by £4m over concerns about rising juice concentrate costs and pricing pressure in organic milk.
However, Hall said the group remained on course to deliver second half profits ahead of last year's figures while reductions in excess milk and cheese stocks should relieve some of the margin pressure in the second half.
Pretax profit before exceptionals and goodwill for the half ended September 30 dropped to £31.6m from £33.8m on sales down from £692m to £638m.
"The results are actually a smidgeon above our expectations," said Hall.
Double digit growth in our market leading brands is a very good result in the current market. The synergies from the Unigate deal have been delivered in full and on time and Severnside  our superdairy is now onstream offering a range of products from Frifjj flavoured milk to potted cream, organic milk and liquid milk." Whie it was taking "a litle longer than we expected" to recover rises in concentrates prices, juice only represented a tiny part of the business, said Hall.
reflecting reduced returns from commodity products, the continued decline in the doorstep market and the loss of some retail milk contracts where it would have been unprofitable to keep the business.
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Double digit growth in Dairy Crest's added value business during the first half was tempered by difficult conditions in commodity areas.
Dairy Crest boss Drummond Hall remained upbeat about the company's prospects, but said trading conditions in commodity cheese and liquid milk remained "challenging".
Analysts reduced full year profit forecasts by £4m over concerns about rising juice concentrate costs and pricing pressure in organic milk.
However, Hall said the group remained on course to deliver second half profits ahead of last year's figures while reductions in excess milk and cheese stocks should relieve some of the margin pressure in the second half.
Pretax profit before exceptionals and goodwill for the half ended September 30 dropped to £31.6m from £33.8m on sales down from £692m to £638m.
"The results are actually a smidgeon above our expectations," said Hall.
Double digit growth in our market leading brands is a very good result in the current market. The synergies from the Unigate deal have been delivered in full and on time and Severnside  our superdairy is now onstream offering a range of products from Frifjj flavoured milk to potted cream, organic milk and liquid milk." Whie it was taking "a litle longer than we expected" to recover rises in concentrates prices, juice only represented a tiny part of the business, said Hall.
reflecting reduced returns from commodity products, the continued decline in the doorstep market and the loss of some retail milk contracts where it would have been unprofitable to keep the business.
{{NEWS }}
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