Dairy Crest's £10M Loss, Milk Unit Hits Results
UK - Dairy Crest has announced a multi-million pound loss due to the poor performance of it's milk division and higher costs.
25 May 2012
2 minute read
The firm, which makes Clover spread and Cathedral City cheese made a net loss of £10.1 million in the year to 31 March 2012, against a profit of £77.8 million one year ago. Dairy Crest's revenue was up marginally at £1.63 billion.
The company blames increased competition from small retailers hitting its milk business, while costs went up by £80 million.
Commenting on the results, Mark Allen, Chief Executive, Dairy Crest Group plc said: "Dairy Crest's results for the year demonstrate the continued benefit of being a broadly based business. Double digit growth in our branded Spreads and Cheese businesses has offset unsatisfactory results in Dairies."
"We have maintained adjusted Group profits despite facing inflationary cost pressures of around £80 million this year by making annualised cost savings of around £22 million and achieving selling price increases. This has been made possible by a programme of consistent investment in developing our key brands and building a modern, efficient supply chain."
"Going forward, we will continue to take decisive strategic action and proactively shape Dairy Crest for the long-term. In March 2012 we announced a strategic review of our French spreads business, St Hubert, which is progressing and since the year end we have also announced a series of actions to restore our Dairies business to a satisfactory level of profitability in the medium term."
"In the current financial year, we are seeing continued strong momentum in our Foods businesses and we expect Dairies to benefit from the decisive action we are taking and our continued discipline on costs."
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