Frozen food performance boosts Iglo Group sales

The company reported that core frozen categories (fish, poultry and vegetables) grew faster than total food over the first quarter of 2012. And total frozen food in the UK market grew faster than total food over the first half of 2012.

“This is the first time that total frozen food has grown faster than total food and it will be an indicator we will be watching closely,” the company said in its H1 statement.​

Iglo Group’s winning UK brands included Takeaway Treats Poultry, a takeaway style snacking product, which included Classic Crumb Chicken Goujons. This had achieved a successful second quarter launch, which had delivered €6m of sales during the period.

Similarly, the first quarter launch of Fish Fusions had added to an already popular new range, catering to the consumer trend of convenient and healthy dining in. In the battered fish category, a dual branded offer with Harry Ramsden’s fish & chips restaurants had been launched.

Growth in the UK​

Growth in the UK was driven by strong performances across all core categories, with notable contributions from fish fingers, coated fish, Rice Fusions and poultry.

The UK Baked to Perfection range had been migrated to Italy, said Iglo Group. It had delivered strong performance there, particularly the Sea Bass recipe. The group continued to explore further opportunities to take successful products and introduce them group-wide, it said.

“The first half of 2012 has seen several new product launches which have delivered strong performance in their respective markets,”​ said Martin Glenn, Iglo Group chief executive.

‘Innovative fish portfolio’​​

“In particular, our innovative fish portfolio delivered strong year-on-year growth in Italy, demonstrating our ability to deliver revenue synergies from acquisitions. We are now investing in the business at record levels and up-scaling our core product production capabilities.​

“While we expect markets in the second half of the year to remain challenging, we remain on track to deliver full-year core category sales growth.”​

The turnaround in France continued with strong sales and share growth on the back of a strong performance in fish and poultry.

Germany​

In Germany, the group extended its range of innovative vegetable products with the introduction of Spinach Fingers and Vegetable Nuggets, both of which were performing well, it added.

Turkey and Russia both continued to experience rapid growth albeit from a small base, supported by continued investment in advertising and promotion. The group remains the brand leader of fish fingers in the key areas of Moscow and St Petersburg.

Iglo Group reported pre-tax profit up 12.8% from €159.9m in 2011 H1 to €180.3m in the same period this year on sales on net sales growth of 3.5%. The company reported 6.1% growth in sales of fish products, 5.4% sales growth in poultry products and a 1% decline in vegetable product sales.