Chilled food group Uniq reported a loss of 1.5 million pounds in the first-half on Monday. It said the sales had dropped due to tough trading conditions in Europe.
It reported a pre-tax loss of £2.2m in the first half as against a profit of £10.3m over the same period in 2004. Chief executive Geoff Eaton who had taken charge, only recently, cautioned that the revenues had worsened considerably compared with first half of last year.
He said: “The trading performance in the UK was unacceptable with a first half operating loss before significant items of £9.6m. The main cause of this loss was Minsterley where the business was unable to manage a large increase in business in conjunction with the commissioning of new IT systems.”
Business particularly in Northern Europe was affected with like-for-like sales falling by 3 per cent. This is attributed to weak summer trading and increased competition in Germany. It had also taken additional staff for its manufacturing plant in Minesterley for making mousse and cheesecakes, but it ended up producing in surplus quantities which had gone waste. Uniq had bought the Minsterley unit at a cost of £16.5 million.
However, Mr Eaton sounded optimistic as he added: "We have taken a number of actions which I believe will turn around the business in the second half."
The company said its sales plummeted to £407.8 million in the first half from £424.4 million in 2004. Uniq said it would not change the interim dividend payable on January 3, at 2.5 pence a share. The shares rose 2 to 118½ pence.
Earlier, Uniq sacked former chief executive Bill Ronald in March following suspension of talks with prospective bidders in the wake of concerns of the company's £97 million pension fund deficit.
Uniq operates from three divisions based in the UK, France, and Germany. It abandoned plans to build a pan-European chilled food business after Ronald had departed.
Currently, Uniq supplies sandwiches and chilled deserts under its won brand to supermarkets in the UK, branded pre-prepared salads and ready-made meals in France and other southern European countries, and branded fish-based products in Germany.
Posted
on : Tue, 15 Nov 2005 20:20 GMT | Business News
By : Salim Patel
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