Dairy Crest sales churn higher in first half

17th Sep 2018 07:15

(Sharecast News) - Dairy Crest said strong sales from its largest cheese and butter brands will mean first half revenues will churn higher than last year, with full year numbers on track thanks to a pipeline of new products. The FTSE 250 group expects half-year profit will be "slightly ahead" of last year but expectations for the full year remain thus-far unchanged.Revenues from Cathedral City cheese have improve after strong volume growth last year, with the brand recently voted one of the top 10 brands by UK consumers in a YouGov survey, while Clover spread is expected to deliver both volume and revenue growth, continuing the positive performance from last year.Chief executive Mark Allen said: "Our Cathedral City and Clover brands continue to drive the business forward, supported by an exciting pipeline of new product developments. For Cathedral City to be named one of the UK's top ten brands by consumers, alongside John Lewis, Amazon and Ikea, is testament to the power of the UK's favourite cheese brand, and we see good growth potential in the UK and beyond." After 14% of last year's revenue came from new innovations, so far in 2018 the company has launched Clover Light with no artificial ingredients launched last month and in coming months will see several new product releases for Cathedral City, including snack bars flavoured with caramelised onions and sweet chilli, plus a Cathedral City lactose free range and a partnership with kids television channel Nickelodeon to promote a relaunched kids snacking range.After launches in recent years into the infant formula market, the Functional Ingredients business will soon roll out sachets of a galacto-oligosaccharides prebiotic liquid 'shot' under the Promovita brand name.Allen added that the balance sheet was in "good shape" after the £70m fundraising in May, with net debt in line to be significantly lower at the end of September compared to the same period last year and progress being made with the first phase of building wort at Davidstow, Cornwall to expand production capacity from 54,000 tonnes to up to 77,000 tonnes over the next four to five years.