Hilton Food performance underpinned by Seachill, Australia operations

The company saw "strong" year-on-year sales growth, with growth in a number of existing and new markets. In Western Europe, it has continued to grow the business, with higher turnover particularly in the UK and Ireland.

The UK saw steady growth in the red meats segment and a "significant" contribution from Seachill, which has benefited from the new business won to supply shellfish to Tesco, which was announced in the November trading update.

In Sweden and Denmark, sales were a little lower, but the Christmas period was strong, with fresh pizza sales in Sweden and emerging opportunities elsewhere.

Sales in Holland were lower, reflecting consumer demand, but Hilton said it has continued to perform well. It said it was pleased with the progress made at Foods Connected, with additional customers signed up to the information and commercial support platform, along with the continued success of Hilton Food Solutions, its trading subsidiary, which has also started to supply the food service sector.

In addition, the company's joint venture in Portugal is continuing to show good progress, while its performance in Central Europe has continued to improve as expected in the second half of the year.

Hilton said its Australia business has also progressed well, delivering strong year-on-year double digit growth, driven by the incremental volume in the satellite facility in Brisbane and higher Victoria plant volumes.

Development work for the new Queensland facility continues ahead of the original plan, with production start-up anticipated towards the end of the third quarter of 2019.

"The group's financial position remains strong and we continue to explore opportunities to invest in and to grow the business in both domestic and overseas markets," it said.