Hilton Food Group has indicated its trading has been “in line” with expectations during 2012 so far.
In an interim management statement released ahead of the UK meat company’s AGM today (16 May), Hilton said it had benefited from its geographically diverse footprint in the face of “challenging” consumer conditions in some of its key markets.
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In western Europe, Hilton said “good progress” had been made and turnover growth had been achieved, although the group did not reveal whether this has fed through to the bottom line.
In Denmark, Hilton said progress had been made on the opening of its new facility. In Ireland, Hilton said it has delivered a “solid performance”. However, in Sweden Hilton said that turnover growth has been “modest” due to the economic slowdown.
Nevertheless, its central European operations have “continued to perform well”.
Hilton, which supplies retailers including Tesco and Ahold, said it will continue to “explore opportunities” to “grow the business in both domestic and overseas markets”. The company emphasised its financial position remains “strong”.
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By GlobalDataPanmure analyst Graham Jones said that Hilton has “started the year well” and is “benefiting from its geographic spread”.
However, he sounded a note of caution on currency exchange. The three major currencies it is exposed to – the Euro, Swedish krona and Polish zloty – have continued to weaken against the sterling, prompting Panmure to trim its full-year EPS guidance.
“Hilton makes no mention of currency movements but sterling has continued to strengthen against all of Hilton’s major currencies,” Jones wrote in a note to investors. “As such we increase our estimate of the currency impact on Hilton’s sales this year from -2.3% to -4.7%.”
As a result, Panmure cut its EPS forecast by 2.2% for 2012 by 3% for 2013, implying an estimated EPS growth of 9.9% in 2012 and 8.9% growth in 2013.
The group is due to issue a pre-close trading statement on 19th July.
