Home cooking helps drive 'outstanding' year for Premier Foods

The firm, which has its Knighton Foods subsidiary at Adbaston near Stafford, saw pre-tax profits rise 23.5 per cent from the last financial year to £115.3 million.

Revenue at the group also jumped 10.3 per cent to £934.2 million, up from £847.1 million the year before.

Grocery revenue for the 53-week financial year stood at £702.6 million, of which £609.3 million was branded revenue and £93.3 million non-branded.

The group benefitted from more people cooking at home during the pandemic, with brands Bisto, Oxo, Ambrosia, Sharwood’s Homepride, Paxo and Nissin performing particularly well.

Sweet treat revenue was £244.4 million for the year, driven mostly by branded revenue.

CEO Alex Whitehouse described the last year as “outstanding”, adding: “Throughout the year, we continued to drive our branded growth model, launching a series of new product ranges, including many healthy options such as Sharwood’s low sugar stir fry sauces and increasing marketing investment with six of our major brands benefitting from TV advertising.

“This, along with a robust performance from our supply chain, ensured we delivered growth ahead of the market.

“Sales of our brands online more than doubled and our continued focus on this channel led to further market share gains. In overseas markets we are now clearly seeing the benefits of last year’s change in strategy with double digit growth in each quarter and 23 per cent in the full year.”