Trading updates from Premier Foods and Danone illustrate how the Covid-19 crisis has shifted consumer demand towards familiar foods and pantry staples.
Premier Foods CEO Gavin Darby said he will stand down and revealed a plan to sell off the Ambrosia dessert business today. Will this be enough to give Premier a fresh lease of life?
Mr Kipling maker Premier Foods’ reported a 3.1% sales dip in 2017 Q1 as warmer weather negatively affected winter favorites like Bisto and Oxo, but this was offset by bigger demand for sweet treats.
Pre-competitive industry research into fat reduction, high protein foods and new product development (NPD) strategies has been given a £1 million (€1.2m) boost in funding through the UK's research councils.
Food and drink sector mergers and acquisitions (M&A) climbed by 11% in the first quarter of this year, with 51 deals completed, according to business consultancy Grant Thornton.
Premier Foods has delivered “a truly awful 2014 stock performance”, despite making solid restructuring progress, said City analyst Shore Capital, ahead of the firm’s third-quarter trading results, due for release later this week.
Premier Foods has launched three new ‘Strategic Business Units’ (SBU’s) in a bid to strengthen its focus on major growth opportunities and develop more agile ways of working.
Premier Foods’s creation of three strategic business units (SBUs) may change little, as the company still faces major challenges if it is to progress, according to one industry expert.
Premier Foods is vulnerable to takeover unless it can grow its core brands – and it is running out of excuses fast, according to Panmure Gordon analyst Graham Jones.
Premier Foods has launched a joint venture with Specialty Powders to process and pack powdered drinks and desserts at its Knighton factory in Staffordshire, home to its Bird’s, Angel Delight and Marvel brands.
Premier Foods is continuing to review its refinancing options, the food manufacturing giant confirmed today (March 3), after weekend press reports claimed it would reveal a deal worth more than £750M this week.
UK food firm Premier Foods has agreed a three-year collaboration on oils and fats development with AAK, making the Swedish specialist its exclusive oils and fats supplier.
Premier Foods will continue to develop its Power Brands and deliver a further £10M of cost savings this year, according to a statement accompanying its half-year results posted today (July 23).
Britain’s biggest food manufacturer Premier Foods has reported growth in power and grocery brands but tough going for its bread division, in its full year financial results for the year to December 31 2012 published yesterday (February 21).
The boss of Britain’s biggest food manufacturer, Premier Foods, has quit the debt-laden company today (January 28) after only 18 months, in a move that surprised City analysts.
Premier Foods has announced the £92.5 sale of its sweet pickles and table sauces business to Japanese firm Mizkan Group in a move that puts the firm past its target for disposals.
Britain’s biggest food manufacturer Premier Foods has appointed Geoff Eaton, formerly ceo of Uniq, as chief operating officer and executive director to “accelerate transformation” within the debt-laden giant.
The Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT’s) investigation of Premier Foods’ sale of its vinegar and pickles business to Mizkan Group is unlikely to hamper the process, according to financial analyst Clive Black.
Premier Foods’ sale of its ethnic flour business Elephant Atta for £34m was a sign of how desperate it was to right its balance sheet, according to market commentators.
UK grocery giant Premier Foods has halved IT operational costs in a project launched in conjunction with Google Enterprise that will enable it to coordinate cross-functional business projects more efficiently.
UK food group Premier Foods will need to rid businesses in order to stabilise following its ‘truly awful’ full year results, analysts say, but predictions of sell-offs remain mixed.
The acquisition of up-for-sale Ragu manufacturer Symington’s could be the key to unlocking the success of Premier Food’s non-core brands, according to city analysts, after reports of private equity interest in the businesses.
Several private label and secondary and tertiary brands such as Paxo Stuffing are likely to be divested by Premier Foods in the coming months, claim analysts, as the UK manufacturer gets breathing space from investors.
Premier Foods CEO Michael Clarke says he is pursuing a strategy of 'category blur' to revive the company’s disappointing trading performance, as he announces new marketing ammunition for the bakery and snack ‘power brands’ central to the approach.
UK-based Premier Foods has reached an agreement to sell its chilled bakery business Brookes Avana to the 2 Sisters Group as it focuses on eight ‘power brands’.
Premier Foods’ announcement that the banks have given it some breathing space represents a “modicum of respite for an embattled business” during a key trading period, claim market analysts.
Analyst RBS believes Brookes Avana is Premier Foods’ most likely candidate for disposal, following the UK food producer’s announcement at the end of last week that it is now actively looking to sell off parts of its business to allow it to deleverage.
Premier Foods has today announced that its chief executive, Robert Schofield will be retiring once a successor has been appointed and no later than April 28 2012.
Premier Foods has been ordered to pay out almost ₤21,000 and slammed by UK safety authorities after an industrial accident in which a 65-kg metal pillar crushed the skull of one of its workers.
The UK's Premier Foods is believed to have offered United Biscuits
an initial £1bn bid for its northern European snack food operations
- even though City analysts claim the business is worth £2.3bn.
UK manufacturer Premier Foods has said it expects to deliver strong
half-year profits as sales of household names Branston and Ambrosia
perk up and the newly acquired Quorn brand enjoys a double-digit
rise in demand.
American manufacturer Kraft will make a bid for United Biscuit's
southern European division, while Premier Foods and a Dutch equity
firm negotiate for stakes in UB's northern European operations.
Following a year of restructuring, the manufacturer famous for
iconic British brands Sarson's Vinegar and Gale's Honey has
announced plans to enter the brown sauce and ketchup sector as a
direct rival to Heinz-HP.
Premier Foods has delivered slow 2005 interim trading results after
acquisitions strengthened total grocery sales but failed to bolster
like-for-like sales growth.
Vulnerabilities in the food chain through globalisation evident as
the sudan 1 food recall, that has racked the UK food industry in
recent weeks, spread to China with reports that international food
maker Heinz has called back chilli...
Premier Foods, the company at the centre of the UK's biggest food
product recall, said it was confident of suffering little or no
financial impact as a result of the food scare as it reported
figures for 2004 already affected...
Lessons will have to be drawn. So concludes an emergency meeting of
scientists in Brussels last week to assess the fall out after the
arrival of the illegal food colour sudan 1 in over 450 processed
food brands on the UK market, reports...
The UK food maker that last week triggered the country's largest
product recall to date identifies two further foods contaminated
with the carcinogenic red food dye sudan 1, reports Lindsey
Partos.
The ownership of UK food producer RHM, formerly known as Ranks
Hovis McDougall, is once again in question, according to a recent
interview. The company may soon change hands for the third time in
a decade.
Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, the US private equity group, has
bought several of Nestle's ambient food businesses for an estimated
120 million pounds (€192 million).
