Mr Kipling owner Premier Foods posted its preliminary results ending 30th March 2019, which revealed a £42.7m statutory loss and a net debt of £469.9 million.
Results show a trading profit growth of 4.5% to £128.5m, and profit before tax up 12.1% to £88 million. It also saw a full year revenue growth of 0.6%.
International business was down by 12.5% which was impacted by Cadbury cake overstocks and lower export distributor volumes.
Alastair Murray, acting chief executive officer said: “Premier Foods has delivered consistent progress over the last two years, growing revenue, trading profit, adjusted earnings and reducing net debt.
“This year we plan to increase investment in both capital projects and consumer marketing, with up to five of our biggest brands expected to benefit from TV advertising.
“We remain focused on reducing our levels of net debt and expect to deliver a similar level of debt paydown in the coming year,”
The Mr Kipling brand revenue saw a growth of 12% following its brand relaunch in the UK, and a strong performance has been seen from brands Ambrosia, Batchelors, Sharwood’s and Soba.
Premier explains that new product innovation remains the core to delivery of growth agenda with its launch of new health brand ‘Plantastic’.
The plan for the new brand is to use plant- based ingredients, in response to current consumer trends, and it expects international business to return to double digit growth in the coming year.
Murray continues: “ While we saw a decline in International revenue and experienced significant operational challenges with the final phase of our logistics transformation programme, our improved structural resilience still resulted in us growing trading profit by 4.5%.
“While the first half of FY19/20 is expected to be slower than last year, reflecting the timing of marketing investment, we expect to make further progress over the next twelve months thanks to our continuing pipeline of new product innovation and strong customer relationships.”
