“Sales volumes and turnover for the year ending 4 April 2009 are in line with forecast. However, the company is confident it will deliver profits that are ahead of market expectations,” the company said on 11 March.
Prior to the update, analysts were forecasting a consensus-underlying pretax profit of £26m ($35.95m), according to Reuters Estimates, down from £36m in the previous year.
The positive statement on the profit outlook was partly offset by news that Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket group, has decided to cut the share of its own-label fresh liquid milk range provided by Robert Wiseman from 60% to 50% with effect from May 2009.
It said this was expected to result in a net reduction of up to 40 million litres supplied to Tesco in the year to 3 April 2010, impacting operating profit by about £2m.
Robert Wiseman said rapid growth in branded milk products supplied to Tesco, such as Fresh’n’Lo, The One and Pure, will help to mitigate the reduced allocation of own-label product. It added that an easing in oil-related costs after a very strong rise during the summer of 2008 was also helping profit margins.
Source: Reuters
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