Trading Statement

Associated British Foods PLC
12 September 2005

12 September 2005

                          Associated British Foods plc

                        Pre Close Period Trading Update

Associated British Foods plc issues the following update prior to entering its
close period for its full year results to 17 September 2005, which are scheduled
to be announced on 8 November 2005.

At the time of the announcement of the interim financial results in April, the
Chairman stated that he expected to be able to report good progress in operating
profit for the full year.  Our businesses in aggregate have performed well in
the second half of the year and we expect, in line with our previous estimates,
operating profit growth to be almost as strong as that achieved in the first
half.

Primark traded very strongly in the second half of the year and like-for-like
sales growth is expected to be around 12% for this period bringing the full year
growth to 9%.  New stores were opened in Kingston, Leeds and a larger store in
Mullingar, replacing the existing one.  The total number of stores is now 123
with 2.5 million sq ft of retail selling space.  The store opening programme for
the first half of the new financial year will add over 0.3 million sq ft and
includes most of the stores acquired from Allders.

Primark has completed its evaluation of the Littlewoods store portfolio and now
expects to trade from some 1.15m sq ft of retail selling space compared to 0.8m
sq ft previously announced.  The Primark stores are planned to open
progressively from spring 2006 until early 2007 with a total investment of some
£500m, higher than the £375m previously announced, reflecting the larger number
of stores being retained.  The operating profit return is expected to exceed the
ABF pre-tax cost of capital in the first full year of trading.  As a result
capital expenditure and interest expense will be higher than expected in the
2005/6 financial year.  The total investment includes the acquisition cost of
the Littlewoods stores, the net cost of trading out and closure of the
Littlewoods business, the refurbishment and fitting out costs for Primark less
proceeds from the disposal of those stores not required.  We will provide for
the full business closure costs, estimated at £47m, in this year's accounts as a
non-operating exceptional item and so will exclude this from the calculation of
adjusted earnings per share.  Trading in Littlewoods since acquisition has been
in line with expectation and there has been a high degree of interest in those
stores which will be sold.

In Grocery, ACH continued to perform well in its existing businesses and trading
was in line with expectation in the newly acquired herbs and spices and consumer
yeast businesses, both of which have now been fully integrated.  Twinings and
Ovaltine have achieved strong sales growth and benefited from a number of
marketing initiatives.  However, bakery profitability in Australia has been
further affected by both competitor pressure in the bread market and by the
start up costs at the new Sydney bakery.  In the UK, although Kingsmill volumes
increased, Allied Bakeries was affected by lower than expected pricing and
volumes.

At British Sugar, as expected, the profit in the UK has been affected by the
oversupply of sugar in the EU this year and higher energy costs.  However,
profit benefited from firmer prices in China and better operational performance
in both Poland and China.  The European Commission published its proposals for
the reform of the EU sugar regime in June and our best estimate is that these
proposals will reduce operating profit from our sugar operations by some £10m in
2006/7 and some £40m per annum thereafter.  These proposals are now subject to
EU working party consideration with a target of confirmation of their final form
in mid November.

At AB Mauri, yeast pricing remained weak in North America and Turkey.  Eastern
Asia performed strongly, particularly in China, and in India, we are reducing
our cost base and market conditions have improved markedly.

Expenditure on acquisitions in the financial year is expected to be over £1.1bn
and mainly comprises the international yeast and bakery ingredients business
from Burns Philp and the Littlewoods stores.

Net investment income will be lower than last year as a consequence of the
acquisition of the yeast business at the beginning of the financial year.  A
further reduction is expected next year reflecting the cash spent on the
acquisition of the Littlewoods stores and, if interest rates remain at current
levels, higher interest expense on our US dollar borrowings and lower investment
income on our sterling cash funds.

The accounts for the year ending 17 September 2005 will be prepared under UK
GAAP and a restatement of these results under International Financial Reporting
Standards will be published in December.

For further enquiries please contact:

Associated British Foods
John Bason, Finance Director                                Tel: [phone]

Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Jonathan Clare, Chris Barrie, Sara Batchelor                Tel: [phone]


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