Trading Update

RNS Number : 9311F

Hilton Food Group PLC

01 November 2018

 

Hilton Food Group plc

1^st November 2018

TRADING UPDATE

Hilton Food Group plc ("Hilton" or the "Group"), the leading international specialist food packing business, is today providing a trading update for the period 16^th July 2018 to date.

During the period, the Group's performance has been in line with the Board's expectations.  We have continued to grow the business through additional volumes and close cooperation with our retail partners. We have also made significant strategic progress with the recent announcement of a joint venture with Dalco, the Dutch vegetarian product company.

In Western Europe we have made good progress in a number of markets. In the UK, turnover has continued to grow relative to last year driven predominantly by Seachill, whilst our Irish business has continued to experience encouraging top-line growth. In Seachill, we are  pleased to have won new business to supply shellfish to Tesco, as well as to supply coated fish to Waitrose from March 2019. Turnover in Denmark remains broadly flat, with Sweden below prior year, though we have seen some volume improvement across the period. Although Holland remains a challenging market, our focus on new product and packaging development as well as other initiatives is providing support to our customer. The joint venture in Portugal is also continuing to show good progress.

As expected, in Central Europe, we have seen a sustained improvement in performance as a result of the initiatives we have taken.

In Australia, we delivered double-digit volume growth from our business, covering the joint venture in Bunbury and Victoria as well as the satellite facility in Brisbane. The development work in relation to the new Queensland plant has continued ahead of plan, with production start-up now expected from the fourth quarter 2019. As noted in the Interim Results, we took full operational control of the joint venture from July 1^st 2018, and a full management team is now in place for Hilton Foods Australia.

The Group's financial position remains strong and we continue to explore opportunities to invest in and to grow the business in both domestic and overseas markets.

The Group intends to publish its results for the 52 weeks ending 30^th December 2018 on  27^th March 2019.

For further information please contact: 

Hilton Food Group plc	Tel: [phone]
Robert Watson, OBE, Executive Chairman
Philip Heffer,Chief Executive Officer
Nigel Majewski, Chief Financial Officer
Citigate Dewe Rogerson	Tel: [phone]
Angharad Couch
Ellen Wilton

This announcement contains inside information which is disclosed in accordance with the Market Abuse Regulation.

 

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