Samworth Brothers recorded one-off non-trading costs of £22.5m in the year ended 30 December 2023 following the decision to shutter its Revolution Kitchen factory last year.
Operating profits at Samworth Brothers fell by 22.2%, to £20m as a result, newly filed accounts for the Leicestershire food manufacturing giant have revealed.
The Ginsters brand owner attributed the slide to “costs associated with closure of a production site during 2023 and a non-cash accounting adjustment to goodwill” – understood to reference the axing of the Revolution Kitchen business.
The business – which was shut by the supplier in October – had made plant-based own-label products for supermarkets, including for Tesco’s Wicked Kitchen and Plant Chef ranges.
Discounting the impact of non-recurring costs, operating profits in 2023 would have climbed by 65.5% to £42.5m, Samworth Brothers said.
Measured as a percentage of sales, operating margins before non-recurring costs had seen “modest improvement” from 1.8% in 2022 to 2.7% in 2023, it added.
Sales at Samworth Brothers in the year ended 30 December 2023 increased by 13% to £1.59bn as the supplier secured new business and benefitted from what it described as “a strong Christmas trading period”.
It was a “record year” for capital investment, Samworth Brothers claimed, adding it had spent £74.6m – up 12.7% from 2022 – on “a range of projects across the group”.
Funds would be used to “invest in extra capacity for customers, further modernisation of our systems and substantial progress on a range of sustainability initiatives”, it added.
“The Group remains in good health with exciting opportunities ahead,” said Samworth Brothers CEO Simon Wookey. “We have embarked upon a significant capital investment programme to further develop the business and satisfy the customer demand for our products.”
Samworth Brothers remained committed to “continuing to build a sustainable and successful business and allocate significant resources to a wide range of… projects that provide additional societal value,” he added.
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