UK dairy group Dairy Crest stressed its brands “continue to perform well” and flagged “improved” trends for its Cathedral City cheese brand during its third quarter.
After a challenging first half to Dairy Crest’s financial year, the company said efforts to strengthen sales trends for Cathedral City cheddar began to pay off during the third quarter to 31 December. During the first nine months of the year, the company revealed its other core brands, Clover, Frylight and Country life have all grown volumes and taken “significant share” in their respective markets.
“Overall, in the first nine months of the year the combined volumes of Cathedral City, Country Life, Clover and Frylight are in line with the same period last year,” the company said in a regulatory filing today (9 February)
The company stressed it is investing in innovation and brand-building with new pack launches for Clover and Frylight and an advertising campaign for the cooking aid.
On functional ingredients, Dairy Crest noted production of demineralised whey powder and galacto-oligosaccharide – ingredients for the global infant formula market – continue to “develop well” at the group’s recently established Davidstow production facility.
Commenting on the group’s nine-month performance, CEO Mark Allen said the results was in-line with expectations. “The business has continued to make progress during the quarter. Our brands have performed well supported by successful innovation and brand investment. I’m particularly pleased to see the improvement in Cathedral City’s performance,” he said.
Dairy Crest will issue its results for its full financial year in May.
