Northern Foods, the UK group behind Fox’s biscuits and Goodfella’s pizza, said today (6 October) that the company’s first-half performance was “in line” with expectations – but that was not enough to stop its shares sliding.
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The company’s stock was down 5.6% at 67.25p at 09:18 BST this morning after the group said turnover was flat for the six months to 26 September.
Turnover was “constant”, Northern said, after last year’s closure of its Fenland facility and lower volumes from its Hull site. Group like-for-like sales rose 2.9%, with group volumes up 2.5%.
Nevertheless, Northern insisted it had seen “strong growth” in underlying revenue, which strips out currency fluctuation, M&A, discontinued operations and sales from products the group no longer makes.
Underlying chilled sales rose 8.8%; bakery sales, meanwhile, climbed 3.9%. Northern’s frozen food sales, however, slid 7.5%.
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By GlobalData“As usual, group sales and profits are weighted to the second half of our financial year,” chief executive Stefan Barden said.
“At this stage of the year, we expect to report results in line with market expectations.”
