Cranswick profits jump as pig prices passed on to customers
CRANSWICK, the sliced meat and sausage-maker, yesterday reported a 21 per cent rise in half-year profits as it succeeded in passing higher pork prices onto its customer.
The Yorkshire-based group warned last month that UK prices were at a three-month high and would continue rising because of high livestock feed prices and the introduction of new EU laws on animal welfare that come into effect in January.
Cranswick, which supplies supermarkets including Tesco, said talks with customers “were progressing well” and it had managed to recoup some of the inflation, although this is likely to mean higher prices being passed on to shoppers.
But Cranswick’s finance director Mark Bottomley said he did not expect pig prices to rise sharply during the run-up to Christmas.
“Costs are stabilising now, they are round about just a touch over 160 pence per kilo,” Bottomley said yesterday.
Pre-tax profits rose 21 per cent to £22.5m – in line with analysts’ expectations.
Underlying revenue rose five per cent to £418.6m in the period, not including the acquisition in June of Milton-Keynes-based Kingston Foods, which manufactures cooked meats.