Young’s Seafood CEO Bill Showalter said the frozen fish producer has overcome “exceptional challenges” in the run-up to Christmas to remain on track to hit earnings targets.
In the 13 weeks to 31 December 2016 Young’s owner, the Luxembourg-listed Lion/Gem Luxembourg 3 S.a.r.l., posted revenues to £128.8m and EBITDA of £3m.
The company did not provide comparable figures for 2016, but Q1 EBITDA was £7.1m in the first quarter of its previous financial year.
It did also state that its festive chilled sales represented year-on-year like-for-like growth and retail frozen fish sales were up.
Showalter commented: “Our strong management of exceptional challenges ensured we exited Quarter 1 on track with our medium term profitability target.
He said the supplier had to mitigate Brexit driven foreign exchange and raw material inflation during the period as well as industry wide fish supply availability challenges.
“With strong operational cost management, the results reflect both our underlying direct cost efficiency and our indirect cost management,” he said.
“The successful execution of our chilled fish supply at Christmas, delivered excellent customer service, sales ahead of plan and in like-for-like growth year on year. Sales of our Retail frozen fish continued to be solid and in growth year on year. Our brand remains the clear number one in both chilled and frozen market products, across multiple channels and temperature formats.”
Earlier this month Young’s annual accounts revealed sales and profits plunged in 2016 after the loss of its crucial salmon supplying contract with Sainsbury’s.
Young’s Seafood annual sales dropped by almost £90m in the year to 30 September 2016 after the loss of its salmon processing contract with the supermarket to Marine Harvest just before the start of its 2015/16 financial year.
Total sales were down 15.2% to £495m during the year, while EBITDA dropped 42% to £23m from £37.4m in the prior year.
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