Operating profit has more than doubled and sales have jumped significantly in the latest annual results for The Compleat Food Group.
The manufacturer, which owns a portfolio that includes bakery brands Wall’s Pastry, Pork Farms, and Wrights, said 2024 represented a key year in its “journey to become the UK’s leading chilled prepared food group” including continued growth of market share ahead of its main competitors.
Its recent filing to Companies House for the 53 weeks to 30 March 2024 showed group revenue of £786.2m, with the 53rd week contributing £14.3m. Adjusting this for a better like-for-like comparison to FY23, it was still more than a 10% increase from the £696.4m generated the year prior.
Underlying operating profit, which excludes exceptional items and shareholder management fees, hit £32.8m for the latest financial period, marking 123% growth on the £14.7m from FY23. This leap in profitability, it said, had been achieved through a strong NPD pipeline across both its brands and own-label ranges supporting volume growth, as well as recovery of cost inflation, effective cost control, and the benefit of capital investment programmes to boost manufacturing efficiencies and levels of automation.
Compleat highlighted that it had not only been awarded new contracts during FY24, but had also renewed a number of long-term contracts, resulting in a 6% increase in own-label sales to £607.1m. This excluded the impact of acquisitions, it added, with the company having purchased party food specialist SK Chilled Foods and dips and deli fillings maker Zorba Foods last February. Proceeds from a sale and leaseback transaction involving three of Compleat’s properties helped fund these acquisitions, it revealed.
Investments in its brands included marketing campaigns, creating new products like the Hog Roast & Apple Medium Pork Pie by Pork Farms, and relaunching bestsellers with new recipes such as Wall’s Pork Sausage Rolls and Vegan Jumbo Roll. These helped attract new customers and increase purchasing frequency, with branded revenue rising by 21% to £179.1m.
Compleat incurred exceptional items of £14.4m before taxation during the period, which it said was mainly in relation to restructuring cost across head office functions and the closure of its Shaftesbury site in Dorset. Included in the exceptional items was £1.8m of regulatory costs as a result of product recalls of 24 own-label pastry lines in August 2023, and a £800k fine levied by the Health and Safety Executive for two workers losing fingers in accidents at Pork Farms bakeries in Nottingham.
Capital expenditure of £26.4m had also been invested, primarily to enhance capability but also to improve efficiency, including on the creation of a centre of excellence for chilled savoury pastry manufacturing at its Milton Keynes facility.
Compleat operates 13 production sites across the UK, supplying chilled and frozen savoury pastry and sweet baked goods as well as olives, antipasti, continental meats, and plant-based products for retail, convenience, and foodservice channels. It also owns the Unearthed, Vadasz, Squeaky Bean, and Palace Culture brands.
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