Mr Darby’s comments come alongside full year results, which saw Premier’s pre-tax profit grow 3.5% to £86.1 million while sales grew 0.6% to £771 million.
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However, a 2.9pc decline in sales of Ambrosia custard and Batchelors, the Cup A Soup and Super Noodles brand, meant that branded sales were unchanged at £683.4m.
Premier has faced controversy for refusing takeover offers from United States rival McCormick & Co (NYSE:MKC), which resulted in the latter withdrawing its interest in the group. Overall, revenue rose 1.4 percent in the quarter to 185.5 million pounds.
The firm’s Grocery Division sales reached £548.6M during the year.
“The focus is now on growth, our first meeting with Nissin is this week”.
Premier increased its investment in consumer marketing in the year to approximately £36m, an increase of almost 10% on the prior year. In the year ahead, the group plans to spend £42-£44m on consumer marketing, increasing its expenditure on media advertising and preparing the foundations for the launch of certain grocery brands in the chilled arena.
In April this year USA spicemaker McCormick & Company walked away from a proposed takeover of Premier Foods after several offers had been rebuffed, and Premier had agreed a “cooperation” deal with Japanese noodle maker Nissin, which had built up a 17% stake in Premier.
Nissin agreed to acquire a 17.27% stake in Premier on 24 March.
Premier’s ceo Gavin Derby said: “We are pleased to report sales growth in the year and the fourth quarter, in what continues to be a deflationary market”.
The partnership could also enable Premier to distribute Nissin products in the United Kingdom and to take advantage of the Japanese company’s global reach to offer its products in key worldwide markets.
“Our strategy of investing behind our brands and bringing new innovative products to market continues to deliver very positive results, with six of our major brands growing on average +3.4% in the year”.
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Premier Foods, the maker of Mr Kipling cakes, has said it expects sales to grow 2% to 4% in this financial year. “The board is focused on shareholder value and we see a strong future”, he said.
