Popularity of private label boosts McBride results
The company, which now claims to be the leading business in Europe for this category, said that group revenues grew by 7 per cent in the four months of trading up to October 25.
“Our markets remain highly competitive and will continue to be so as private label continues to perform strongly in core categories in these difficult economic times,” said Miles Roberts, chief executive.
The company also pointed out that a weak sterling currency had helped to boost results by around 4 per cent, while it is also benefiting from restructuring and cost reduction measures.
Operating margins boosted by overall performance
This combination of favourable conditions had also helped to increase operating margin performance, despite the fact that there has been a steady rise in the price of materials
Likewise, the company said that an improved product mix had helped to further boost the results, an opinion that was shared by market analyst Investec, which said in an investor note that the product mix had improved in the past six months.
The Investec note also said that improved margins, mainly from the company’s continental European operations, had led it to increase net profit forecasts for the 2010 financial year from £41.5m to around £47m.
Net profits set to rise
Currently McBride is sticking to its own forecasts that profits for 2010 will increase by £6m compared to last year, at about £42m.
In the financial year ending June 2009, the company reported a 13 per cent increase in sales to ₤792.4m, 4 per cent of which the company said was down to organic growth and the rest currency translation.
News of the results was greeted warmly by investors, with shares up 9.9 per cent to 220.8 pence at close of trading yesterday on the London Stock Exchange.
