Finnebrogue posts £50m growth across group of businesses

The Finnebrogue group of companies saw sales jump by £50m to almost £150m in the year to 27 February 2021 on the back of strong growth across its sausage, plant-based and nitrite-free businesses, latest accounts have shown.

Total sales for the 12-month period amounted to £120.1m for the Finnebrogue Artisan business’ parent Lynn’s Country Foods, with the Finnebrogue Bacon Company posting turnover of £16.6m and the Finnebrogue Vegetarian Company posting £12m.

The total of £148.7m was 48.7% higher than the £100m (annualised) turnover of the three businesses during the previous 12 months, a spokesman said.

However, direct comparison of the accounts was complicated by a change in accounting periods from 18 to 12 months this year. The supplier added that annual performance would also be easier to compare in future once sales from relevant parts of the business were allocated to the bacon and vegetarian businesses for a second consecutive year – a process that started in the current accounting period.

Lynn’s Country Foods – its previous primary trading entity – posted a pre-tax profit of £6.1m for the 12 months to 27 February, compared with £7.4m for the 18 months to 28 February 2020. 

Annualised pre-tax profit, therefore, stood at £4.9m, showing an increase in profitability for the business of 24.5%. That business will in future report predominantly on the performance of the Finnebrogue sausage operation. 

“Profitable growth of this kind provides us with the tools to continue to produce innovative and market-leading new products,” said the spokesman.

Finnebrogue’s staff “did a wonderful job” during the pandemic, the spokesman said. 

“We have kicked on again in 2021, not least with the first full year of operations out of our world-leading plant-based facility. Profitable growth of this kind provides us with the tools to continue to produce innovative and market-leading new products,” he added.

The results come a week after Finnebrogue announced the rebranding of its Naked range to Better Naked. It said the change marked the evolution of the brand’s product lineup, which launched with nitrite-free bacon and has since expanded into an array of meat and plant-based foods.

Finnebrogue also announced the launch of its first TV ad last week and unveiled plans for a Denis Lynn Scholarship for Sustainable Food Innovation in collaboration with Queen’s University, Belfast – in honour of the company’s founder and chairman Denis Lynn, who died in a quad bike accident on 2 May