Falling losses at Uniq’s desserts business – and a jump in earnings from the UK firm’s sandwich and salads operations – improved the company’s bottom line over the last 12 months.
The company, which makes products including sandwiches for Marks and Spencer and Cadbury-branded desserts under licence, posted a pre-tax loss of GBP11.2m (US$18.5m) for 2010, down from GBP18.5m in 2009.
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Trading profit before significant items climbed 88.6% to GBP8.3m, Uniq said. The company’s revenue, meanwhile, was up 8.6% at GBP311.9m. Excluding the extra week in Uniq’s 2010 financial year, turnover grew 6.8%.
Despite the loss of some of its private-label cottage cheese business to Arla Foods, Uniq’s desserts sales, when excluding the 53rd week in 2010, rose 1.5% to GBP155m. The losses made by the unit fell 6.9% to GBP2.7m.
Uniq’s food-to-go unit, which makes salads and sandwiches for UK retailers, saw sales rise 13% to GBP157m. Higher volumes boosted economies of scale from the business and drove up profits 51% to GBP11m.
Chief executive Geoff Eaton, reflecting on a year when Uniq finally resolved a pension deficit that had dwarfed the value of the business and analysed the future of its desserts business, said: “This is a strong set of results and a credit to our management and employees who have focused so successfully on service and innovation in difficult circumstances.
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By GlobalData“Having delivered the pension solution and with a positive outcome from the desserts review, we are now well placed to develop the full potential of this business.”
Uniq’s solution to its pension deficit involved giving the trustees to its pension fund a 90.2% stake in the company in exchange for clearing the deficit, which had stood at over GBP400m.
Earlier this month, Uniq said the fund had decided to sell at least part of the stake. A spokesperson for Uniq said today that the situation remained unchanged, with the company’s board continuing to work with trustees to “maximise value” for all shareholders.
Uniq’s plan for its desserts business involves further investment in its premium desserts business, build its “premium, differentiated” yoghurt unit and reduce costs from its “everyday” desserts operations, where the losses from the entire division are concentrated.
The company also claimed it has “ambitious growth plans” for the Cadbury desserts it makes but said it “needs to secure support for these plans from our partners”.
