Hilton Food Group plc
AGM TRADING UPDATE
Hilton Food Group plc (“Hilton Foods” or the “Group”), the leading international multi-protein food business, today provides a trading update for the period from 2nd January 2023 to date, ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held at noon today.
Trading
Trading has been in line with Board’s expectations. Sales are ahead of the prior year, reflecting continued increases in raw materials prices and the positive effect of a full year of ownership of Foppen following its acquisition in March 2022.
· Revenue in UK & Ireland is ahead of last year. As expected higher raw material prices continue to have an impact on volumes. The ongoing turnaround plan in our UK Seafood business remains on track to deliver against our performance improvement and cost saving targets.
· In Europe, revenue is ahead of the previous year, as a result of the benefits from the acquisition of Foppen and particularly strong trading in our Scandinavian markets. The development of our Swedish food park continues, and we remain on target to commence production of convenience products in Q4 of this year.
· In APAC we have seen strong volume and revenue growth from our three facilities in Australia and our food park in New Zealand.
· Our technology businesses, Agito and Foods Connected, continue to make good progress agreeing new contracts with international customers in the period.
Our Sustainable Protein Plan is a core part of the Group’s strategy with ambitious targets across each of its core pillars of People, Planet and Product. We are on track to meet our existing Science Based Targets across Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and by August will have submitted our increased ambition targets aligned to a 1.5â—¦C pathway.
Outlook
Hilton Foods’ trading performance since the start of 2023 has been in line with the Board’s expectations and, despite the uncertain macro-economic environment, the business is well positioned for the year ahead. The Group’s financial position continues to be strong with leverage and headroom at comfortable levels.
Our short and medium term growth prospects are underpinned by our recent acquisitions and the continued recovery of our UK Seafood business, combined with opportunities to develop our cross-category business and utilise our wider supply chain management expertise. We also continue to explore growth opportunities and wider geographic expansion with existing and new customers.
The Group intends to publish its results for the 28 weeks ended 16th July 2023 on 7th September 2023.