Dairy Crest said this morning (19 July) that its performance for the first quarter of the year was “in line” with expectations, as the UK dairy group continued to build “momentum” behind its spreads brands.
The company said that combined sales volumes across its four key brands – Cathedral City, Clover, Country Life and Frylight – were in line with the comparable period of last year.
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Commenting on the group’s trading performance, CEO Mark Allen was upbeat on the performance of Dairy Crest’s spreads brands, which have seen sales come under pressure in the declining UK spreads category. “Our butters, spreads and oils business is progressing well. Clover and Country Life have both built on the momentum from the second half of last year,” he said, noting that Frylight sales are “growing strongly”.
In cheese, Allen said the company has successfully re-launched Cathedral City. “The year has started off as we expected. Our branded business continues to perform well. In cheese, we have successfully re-launched Cathedral City, the nation’s favourite cheese, with new packaging and branding. This has been supported with a wide-reaching media and promotional campaign,” he said.
Allen added that the group’s investment in infant formula ingredients were starting to pay off. “We are successfully building the customer base for both products in partnership with Fonterra.”
The statement comes ahead of Dairy Crest’s AGM, which will take place today.
