Premier Foods plc
10 May 2007
Premier Foods plc
AGM statement
Premier Foods ('Premier') is making the following trading update in advance of
its Annual General Meeting, which will be held today at 11am, at Haberdashers'
Hall, 18 West Smithfield, London EC1A 9HQ.
Premier 2007 trading
Sales for January to March were in line with our expectations, although sales in
April have been impacted by the unusually warm weather. Our growth expectations
for the business for 2007 are unchanged, particularly against the backdrop of
the hot summer of 2006.
We are pleased to have significantly reduced the decline in sales that the
Campbell's portfolio was experiencing before its acquisition. We have a major
re-launch planned for Batchelor's and Oxo in the second half of this year
supported by exciting innovation, which we are confident will increase the
positive momentum already established for the brands.
We completed the acquisition of RHM on 16 March and have begun its integration
into Premier. We remain excited about the opportunities that the combination of
these two businesses bring for brand development and improved efficiency and are
encouraged as we learn more about the underlying business, brands and people.
RHM 2006/7 trading
Results for RHM will be consolidated into Premier's results from 16 March 2007,
the date the acquisition completed. The following update is for the 12 months
ended 28 April 2007, which was RHM's 2006/7 financial year.
We anticipate that, overall, sales for RHM for 2006/7 will be slightly ahead of
those for its 2005/6 financial year. As previously indicated, trading profits
were impacted by the increase in wheat prices in the autumn of 2006 and softer
trading in the culinary brands business due to the extended period of warmer
weather in the second half of 2006. This has been partly offset by the
continued strong recovery of the Cakes division.
Bread Bakeries achieved price increases in February, which offset the higher
wheat prices from that point onwards. The relaunch of Kingsmill, one of Hovis'
major competitors, supported by deep-price promotions has destabilised the
market over March and April. However, early indications show that as Kingsmill
promotions have ended, Hovis' market share has returned to its former levels,
reflecting the strength of the Hovis brand.
Trading for Culinary Brands has continued in line with its performance in the
first half of the RHM 2006/7 financial year. Sales and trading profit have, like
the Premier base business, been impacted by the unusually hot weather in April.
The Cakes division continued to progress with strong sales, trading profit and
margin growth and improved market share, driven by double digit sales growth for
Mr Kipling.
Customer Partnerships continued to make steady progress with sales and operating
profits for this division marginally ahead for the RHM 2006/7 financial year.
RHM integration
We are pleased to welcome Miles Warnick, Tim Kelly and Mark Hughes to the
executive management team at Premier. Miles and Tim will continue in their
roles as Chief Operating Officers of the Bread Bakeries and the Cakes & Customer
Partnerships divisions respectively. Mark has been appointed as Group
Procurement Director for the whole of Premier.
Following completion of the acquisition we have reviewed the scope and timing of
our cost synergy estimates and have confirmed the achievability of the £85m
annual savings targeted.
We have announced a proposal to close the RHM head office in Marlow, which is
planned to be completed by the end of June 2007.
We have also moved rapidly to commence the full integration of the Culinary
Brands business and have announced proposals to close its head office in
Addlestone. We have developed new organisational structures combining the
Premier and Culinary Brands operations and consultation with affected staff is
underway.
We have initiated a review of the manufacturing network of the combined
businesses covering the Premier ambient factories, the Culinary Brands factories
and Ledbury preserves. In order to optimise the level of synergies, we have put
on hold the closure of our Ashford factory, scheduled for June 2008, whilst we
conduct the review due to the high degree of overlap between it and some of the
RHM sites' capabilities. We anticipate that this review will be completed by
the end of May 2007, following which we will communicate any proposals to
employees. The closure of the Campbell's King's Lynn site will proceed as
planned and is scheduled to be completed by December 2007.
We intend to release results for RHM restated into calendar first half and
second half 2006 in June 2007, bringing them into line with Premier reporting.
Campbell's integration
The integration of all the Campbell's administration functions has now been
completed, on schedule and to budget, with the closure of the office in
Cambourne at the end of April. The current synergy run rate confirms the
anticipated £7m of cost synergies scheduled to be delivered in 2007 and we
remain confident that the total of £28m of annual cost synergies identified will
be delivered in full and in line with the schedule previously communicated.
Enquiries:
Premier Foods plc Tel: 01727 815 850
Robert Schofield, Chief Executive
Paul Thomas, Finance Director
Gwyn Tyley, Investor Relations Manager
Citigate Dewe Rogerson Tel: 020 7638 9571
Michael Berkeley
Justin Griffiths
Nicola Smith
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
*A Private Investor is a recipient of the information who meets all of the conditions set out below, the recipient:
Obtains access to the information in a personal capacity;
Is not required to be regulated or supervised by a body concerned with the regulation or supervision of investment or financial services;
Is not currently registered or qualified as a professional securities trader or investment adviser with any national or state exchange, regulatory authority, professional association or recognised professional body;
Does not currently act in any capacity as an investment adviser, whether or not they have at some time been qualified to do so;
Uses the information solely in relation to the management of their personal funds and not as a trader to the public or for the investment of corporate funds;
Does not distribute, republish or otherwise provide any information or derived works to any third party in any manner or use or process information or derived works for any commercial purposes.
Please note, this site uses cookies. Some of the cookies are essential for parts of the site to operate and have already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but if you do, parts of the site may not work. To find out more about the cookies used on Investegate and how you can manage them, see our Privacy and Cookie Policy
To continue using Investegate, please confirm that you are a private investor as well as agreeing to our Privacy and Cookie Policy & Terms.