Bury St Edmunds factory fire

Premier Foods plc
02 November 2004


Premier Foods plc

Factory Fire at Bury St Edmunds

Following events in the early hours of Wednesday 27th October, when there was a
fire at our Bury St Edmunds factory, the company made a preliminary announcement
in which we stated that there was a dedicated team on site assessing the
situation and that we would update the market again when further information was
known. The purpose of this announcement is to provide that update following the
conclusion of our initial assessment.

Aside from smoke and water damage, the majority of damage to the factory is
concentrated in three areas: -

   •The roof is damaged in places and will need to be replaced although we
    will erect temporary cover to permit production where we need to.

   •Some site services are currently affected, in particular, only one of the
    boilers out of three is still in full working order and there is some damage
    to electrical supply lines and the effluent plant. All site services should
    be operational within three weeks.

   •There is some damage to machinery in the cooking and table sauces
    building but the pickles building is mainly intact.

Notwithstanding the above and subject to Health and Safety regulations, our
current view is that we will achieve a partial start up of production of
Branston Pickle within three weeks. Over December and January we foresee a
gradual move back to full production of all products.

In addition, we are in discussions with a number of other manufacturing
companies to cover production of certain product lines until we have the plant
fully operational again, and in this regard we have had an excellent response.
We foresee production from these manufacturers beginning during November.

Our current stock levels of the lines produced at Bury St Edmunds are sufficient
to cover approximately two weeks of sales, but these stock levels vary by
product line. In addition, following publicity regarding the fire and potential
lack of availability of some of the product lines, we anticipate we may
experience significant short term customer demand which may result in the
current stock being sold through much quicker than would be normal. We will be
targeting to resume production of those products with the lowest stock levels
first.

As stated in our previous release, we have comprehensive insurance cover in
place to cover material damage and the loss of profits suffered, subject to an
excess of £1m.

We are in constant touch with our customers who continue to be very supportive
and we are keeping them advised of the current situation as it develops.

In summary, we have had a fire at our Bury St Edmunds factory, which has
resulted in significant damage. We anticipate that the resulting production
problem will be largely resolved over a three-month period. We have
comprehensive cover with our insurers who are helping greatly in our efforts to
restore our brands and products to the market place.

Lastly, we would also like to take this opportunity to thank the fire brigade
for their swift action and the employees at Bury St Edmunds for their response.




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