Hilton Food Group said that it was able to grow sales volumes in western Europe during the third quarter but conceded that value sales have been hit by lower raw material prices and currency exchange.

In its interim management statement for the period beginning 14 July, Hilton said its UK business has seen “encouraging” volume growth on the year and added that it is on-track to complete its capacity expansion project in the market in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. In Holland volumes were also up, while the Swedish market “remained steady”.

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The company also revealed that Irish sales have benefited from a recent pickup. According to analysts at Shore Capital this represents a “modest surprise”.

“Despite the ongoing trend in market share data and Tesco’s reported LFL decline, Hilton has seen a ‘recent pick-up’ after a challenging H1,” the analysts note.

Elsewhere, central Europe performed “in line” with expectations, while Australia saw “good progress”.

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Hilton stressed that its financial position is “strong” and confirmed that it “continues to explore opportunities” to grow the business in the UK and overseas.

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Hilton is scheduled to issue a trading statement in early January. The company will release its full-year results on 25 March.

Shore Capital is forecasting full-year pre-tax profit of GBP24.9m (US$39.6m) and EPS of 24.5p, down 1% year-on-year. However the brokerage adds: “We forecast a return to strong growth in FY2015, looking for CPTP of £27.8m, EPS of 33.2p, with EPS up c11% yoy.”