Aside from pasties, all of Cranswick’s categories, including fresh pork, cooked meats, sausages, continental foods, sandwiches and premium chicken and poultry firm Benson Park, enjoyed volume growth across the latest quarter.
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Returning to the key United Kingdom division, the executives predicted that Greencore would continue to outperform the wider convenience foods market with its market share set to “grow strongly” in the near term from about 15 per cent. It will be helped in the near term as two customers who now rely on a number of convenience food suppliers will in future rely exclusively on Greencore. Stripping out the impact of currency movements, sales rose 3.1 per cent, marking a slowdown from 7.5 per cent growth reported for the first half of the year.
The statement added: “As part of Cranswick’s strategy to focus on its core protein businesses, the board is pleased to announce the sale of the group’s sandwich business, The Sandwich Factory Holdings Limited, to Greencore for a cash consideration of £15m”.
The Sandwich Factory, which operates from a single facility in Warwickshire, brought in £42m in revenue past year.
Elsewhere in Greencore’s trading update, the manufacturer reported United Kingdom sales growth of 4.1% on the previous year, and a 6.7% growth on the previous year to date. “We have long considered sandwiches as non-core to Cranswick so the disposal comes as no surprise to us”.
The company said it is confident in its ability to deliver performance in line with market expectations.
The acquired business will extend Greencore’s United Kingdom food to go channel presence, modestly increase overall production capacity and bring new capabilities to the group. The company said the decline “reflects lower commodity prices and a decrease in demand from milk powder producers”.
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“At this stage, our assessment is that the short-term impact on Greencore is likely to be modest“.
