Premier Foods, Britain’s biggest food manufacturer, has used key-product price rises in the last few months to hold out for its expected 4 per cent profit increase, the company has announced.
In the first half of the year Premier made pre-tax profits of £60 million.
But it does however now have net debts of over £1.8 billion, the announcement of which led to an eight per cent drop in share price to 89.5 pence.
With a portfolio of brands which includes Cadbury, Hovis, Oxo, Ambrosia, Crosse & Blackwell and Bird’s, according to the company, 98 per cent of homes have one of its brand’s products stocked in the kitchen cupboard.
Premier Foods’ chief executive, Robert Schofield, said: “Our expectations for the year as a whole remain unchanged, with progress weighted towards the second half as the benefit of all these fundamental actions begin to flow through.”