Dairy Crest nine-month revenue 'well ahead' of last year

Dairy Crest said on Wednesday that revenue in the nine months to the end of December 2017 was “well ahead” of the previous year thanks to a strong performance from its key brands.

The company, whose outlook for the full year remains in line with its expectations, said Cathedral City, Clover, Country Life and Frylight delivered revenue growth of 7% during the period.

All of the group’s spread brands continued to gain market share, while growth in Frylight remains strong going into the fourth quarter thanks to a “significant” increase in the number of distribution points across the UK. However, Country Life volumes continued to take a hit from the big increase in the cost of cream over the last year. Still, the cream price has dropped in recent months and Country Life promotional activity will pick up in 2018.

Meanwhile, sales of Dairy Crest’s functional ingredients - demineralised whey powder and galacto-oligosaccharide, both used in the infant formula market - are progressing well.

Chief executive Mark Allen said: "We have seen strong growth across our key brands, with Cathedral City, Clover and Frylight performing well and all of our spreads brands increasing market share. I am delighted that Cathedral City Spreadable, one of our more recent innovations, was voted 'Product of the Year 2018' in the cheese category by consumers.

"We continue to build the customer base for our functional ingredients business and we will talk in greater detail about this in May."