Dairy Crest is issuing the following Interim Management Statement for the 3 months ended 30 June 2017 ahead of its Annual General Meeting which will be held later today.

Trading performance

Trading in the first quarter was in line with expectations and the outlook for the full year remains unchanged.

Combined sales volumes of Dairy Crest’s four key brands – Cathedral City, Clover, Frylight and Country Life – are 7% ahead of the same period last year. Cathedral City, Clover and Frylight have all grown strongly; in particular, Cathedral City volumes are up 15% on last year.

Cream prices, which determine input costs for the butter business, have increased substantially during the first quarter. This will put pressure on margins in our butter business. We have reduced our promotional activity on Country Life, which is adversely impacting volumes but mitigates some of the margin pressure.

Mark Allen, Chief Executive, commented:

“The year has started well and our branded business has delivered good growth in the first quarter. The nutritional ingredients business continues to progress well and new customers are being signed up. We still expect that the profit contribution from this business will be second half weighted.

“Dairy Crest is well positioned for long-term sustainable profit growth. Despite the pressure on butter input costs, the strong performance of our cheese business means that our expectations for the year remain unchanged.”

Dairy Crest’s Annual General Meeting will be held today at 12 pm at the offices of Eversheds LLP, 1 Wood Street, London EC2V 7WS.

Dairy Crest expects to issue its half-yearly trading update on 18 September 2017 and its Interim Results for the six months ending 30 September 2017 on 9 November 2017.

For further information, please contact:

Dairy Crest
Tom Atherton - Group Finance Director
07725 828533

Brunswick
Oliver Hughes
020 7404 5959