Innocent sales are booming in Continental Europe but UK sales dropped by 3% last year, newly filed accounts have revealed.

Accounts filed in Companies House for Innocent’s UK operating business show overall sales were up 10.8% from £201.8m to £223.6m in the year to 31 December 2015.

However, this growth was entirely attributable to a 47.7% jump in exports from the UK to other European territories, which generated sales of £81.1m compared with £54.9m last year.

Sales derived from the UK dropped 3% to £142.5m amid what Innocent called a “challenging” chilled juice category in the country.

UK revenues were suppressed by Innocent’s withdrawal from its food business, which generated revenues of £8.8m in 2014 but ceased trading in April 2015. Innocent UK’s operating profits fell 20.4% to £10.9m after a 28.8% jump in distribution costs to £43.3m. Reported profit was 15.2% down to £10.6m.

This decline in profitability mirrors that of parent group Fresh Trading, which The Grocer revealed last month fell to an operating loss of £0.7m in the year to 31 December 2015 from a profit of £6.3m in 2014 as it ramped up investments in European markets and NPD.

Fresh Trading, which incorporates a number of Innocent’s European trading businesses, reported total group revenue growth of 18.2% to £258.8m.

CEO Douglas Lamont told The Grocer at the time: “Last year we invested more money than we’ve ever done in innovation and marketing the brand”.

Innovation also added £28m of group revenue, which included the launch of Innocent Coconut Water in July 2015

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