Sweet taste of success at Cavaghan and Gray
Last updated 13:47, Monday, 13 October 2008
The owner of Carlisle’s Cavaghan & Gray food factory said the ready meal plant had helped push group sales up 3.9 per cent.
Northern Foods said new ranges of better value pizzas and higher quality ready meals contributed to its improved performance in the first half of the year.
Although Marks & Spencer, the group’s largest customer, has reported a fall in food sales, Northern said its products within M&S had done well. Three of Northern’s products have been featured in M&S’s television advertisements, the firm added.
Chief executive Stefan Barden said orders for Christmas suggested sales should be positive over the festive season.
Northern Foods is the largest Christmas pudding maker in the UK, it supplied 20 million puddings last year and is the market leader in seasonal biscuits.
During the six months to September 27, the group bore start-up costs of about £1m for a soup factory in Grimsby; Mr Barden said this would be recouped as the factory built up production over the winter months.
A relaunch of the Fox’s biscuit brand, including a TV campaign starring an animated panda called Vinnie added £2.4m to the marketing bill, the company reported. The group also had to pay out £6m after the mothballing of its Fenland Foods factory that supplied Italian ready meals to M&S, it said.
Northern’s chilled food division increased sales by an underlying 2.4 per cent, with ready meals sales up 4.5 per cent even though the market for ready meals had fallen 2.5 per cent.
The bakery division’s sales rose 6.7 per cent, reflecting the success of the Fox’s campaign.
Growing sales of frozen foods, including Goodfella’s pizzas and the cheaper San Marco range, increased underlying sales 4.1 per cent.
