Hovis

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 09:30 | Categorized as

28/10/10 -- Premier Foods' interim management statement for the three months ended 30 September 2010 is out today. In it they report year on year sales value growth of 1.8% and volume growth of 9.5% for their Hovis brand.

The Hovis value market share of pre-packed loaves in the quarter was 25.5%, up 0.1 percentage points on the same period last year.

Interestingly though, non-branded sales fell 18.4% in the third quarter, "reflecting continued decline in the retailer brand bread market, bulk flour deflation in 2009 and the impact of exiting low margin contracts in 2009. We expect this decline to continue to slow in the fourth quarter as we lap the contract exits in 2009 and as wheat prices increase," they say.

"During the third quarter, wheat prices increased by more than 50%. Accordingly we have repriced our entire bread and flour range. This exercise is complete and the pricing covers the input cost inflation. The result is slightly negative to Trading profit in 2010 as there is a stagger between when commodity costs increase and when new pricing comes into effect. Nevertheless, we expect the Hovis division at least to match the £31m Trading profit recorded in 2009," they added.

Not even a mention of the Tesco fascists, or the offer of a fight with Terry Leahy in the car park, nothing. Which I find mildly disappointing, personally.