Sales at premium pie maker Higgidy flat-lined last year as a major restructure of the brand hit revenues.
Newly filed accounts at Companies House show total sales in the year to 1 October 2017 fell 1.1% to £23.8m - a reversal of the stellar 24% sales growth it posted in its previous financial year.
The accounts said the sales drop was driven by changes in promoted products as well as a 12-week dip in sales as the restructured brand “regained recognition” after the early 2017 shakeup.
However, branded sales, which make up 80% of its total revenues, were up by 1% in the year and it was among just two of the top five savoury pastry brands to grow sales in the past year.
MD Mark Campbell said the work undertaken in the period “has set us up well for this year”, with the brand growing by 4.8% in the last 52 weeks and by 13.2% in the last 26 weeks.
The boost in recent trading comes despite losing all nine of its Tesco listings in mid-May amid a rationalisation of the retailer’s savoury pies.
“Our brand values are connecting with the consumer more than ever and even in a turbulent market we are seeing and realising significant opportunities to grow and strengthen the business,” Campbell said.
Pre-tax profits rebounded to £816.7m from a pre-tax loss of £598.5m in its 2016 financial year, though this was primarily driven by a change in its accounting treatment of leashold depreciation, which added almost £1.5m to operating profits.
Higgidy said core profitability was “greatly hampered” by price increases across key commodities - notably dairy and meat - and a lag in time before passing these on to customers.
Campbell said the business had now been able to pass on commodity increases this year to mitigate the effects of these rising costs
The brand restructure added a one-off cost of £195k.
In recent weeks the brand has launched two meat-free parcels exclusively into Waitrose, to appeal to the growing number of vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian shoppers.
The brand refresh also saw the launch of a pastry-free Frittata range late last year.
Campbell told The Grocer back in December 2017 that vegetarian products made up around 60% of its sales during the year, adding: “We see massive continued growth in the free from section of the category.”
No comments yet