Food giant’s revenues up 15 per cent to £2.3billion
INVESTMENT IN CAPACITY PAYS DIVIDENDS FOR CRANSWICK
HULL-HEADQUARTERED food giant Cranswick has delivered another year of huge growth, with revenues up more than 15 per cent to £2.3bn. Investment in the meat producer’s home city saw a new £32m prepared poultry facility contribute, having been commissioned at the start of the year, with retail and food service customers served.
A third line at the cooked bacon facility has also added to capacity and capability, with 7,000 now employed by the Ftse-listed firm in the area.
Margins increased from 6.1 per cent to 6.5 per cent, with the company underlining inflation recovery in the second half of the period against pressures that “continue to be well controlled”. Operating profit hit £146.5m, up from £140.6m in the year to March 25.
Adam Couch, chief executive, said: “Over the last 12 months all at Cranswick have demonstrated resilience and determination in abundance, enabling us to deliver a strong set of results and make further meaningful progress in delivering our strategic objectives.
“I would like to thank our colleagues for their continued enthusiasm and commitment. I would also like to thank our suppliers and customers, with whom we continue to work in close partnership, for their support and understanding.
“We have successfully navigated three years of unprecedented disruption and uncertainty and we now have a much larger, more diverse, and better equipped business, which is primed to deliver the next phase of growth.
“We invested £85.1m across our asset base during the year. Our total investment in the last three years exceeds £250m. Investment during the year has been broad-based as we look to expand capacity and enhance the capability of existing facilities.
“We are proposing to lift our full year dividend by a further 5 per cent this year. This will be our 33rd year of consecutive dividend growth.
“We have made a positive start to the new financial year.
“The strengths of our business, which include our diverse and longstanding customer base, breadth and quality of products and channels, robust financial position and industry leading infrastructure will support the further development of Cranswick over the longer term.”
A successful campaign to recruit skilled butchers from the Philippines into the primary processing facilities “helped to alleviate the well-publicised labour shortage in our sector”, Mr Couch said, although there was a significant cost to the business from doing this.
On the investment, £10m has been ploughed into Cranswick’s largest primary processing facility in Hull. It represents the first stage of a redevelopment. Alongside the existing semi-automated shoulder deboning line, the company has more recently added a similar leg deboning line and now an automated cutting line.
“The Hull facility incorporates some of the most technologically advanced butchery equipment the industry has to offer,” Mr Couch said.