Shares in Northern Foods rose by more than 3% this morning (10 November) after the company reported a rise in half-year profits and a GBP26m (US$43.4m) investment in key brand Fox’s biscuits.
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The UK food group, which also owns Goodfella’s pizza, booked a 2% increase in underlying operating profit to GBP20.5m for the six months to 26 September.
Revenues dipped 0.3% to GBP466.9m but Northern pointed to the mothballing of its Fenland site last year. On a like-for-like basis, sales climbed 2.9%.
Profit for the period reached GBP15.3m, up sharply from GBP900,000 a year earlier.
Chief executive Stefan Barden said: “Our business is stable, balanced, and benefiting from management actions taken to improve our performance.”
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By GlobalDataNorthern said the GBP26.5m investment in its Fox’s business would “drive earnings growth”, although the introduction of more automated technology will lead to the loss of around 220 jobs.
Northern shares rose by more than 3.5% to 67.3p in early trading before falling back to 66.7p – a rise of 2.6% on the day.
