Highlights

• Revenue up 16% to £220.1m
• Adjusted profit before tax1 up 8% to £20.6m
• Cathedral City volume growth of 10%
• Clover and Frylight growing market share strongly
• Pension deficit eliminated on an accounting basis
• Kirkby restructuring underway to improve flexibility and reduce cost base
• Proposed interim dividend up 2% to 6.3p
• Full year expectations remain unchanged

Financial Summary

	Half year ended 30 September
	2017	2016	Change
Revenue	£220.1m	£190.0m	+16%
Adjusted profit before tax1	£20.6m	£19.1m	+8%
Profit before tax2	£151.4m	£15.6m	+871%
Adjusted basic earnings per share1	11.9p	11.1p	+7%
Basic earnings per share2	87.6p	9.3p	+842%
Pension surplus/(deficit)	£39.9m	£(120.5)m	n/a
Net debt3	£281.4m	£262.3m	+7%
Interim dividend	6.3p	6.2p	+2%

From continuing operations before exceptional items (material and one-off in nature), amortisation of acquired intangibles and pension interest. This represents management’s key profit measure because it excludes exceptional items and therefore gives a better indication of the underlying operational performance of the Group (see note 3 to the interim financial statements)

From continuing operations including an exceptional gain of £131.4m (2016: exceptional loss of £2.9m)

For a reconciliation of net debt, refer to note 10 of the interim financial statements
All comparative figures in the interim results announcement relate to the six months ended 30 September 2016 unless stated otherwise.

Mark Allen, Chief Executive, said:

“We have had an encouraging first half, with Cathedral City, Clover and Frylight delivering good growth in both volumes and value. Cathedral City, the nation's favourite cheese, continues to go from strength to strength and has produced exceptional growth over the period.

“We have delivered good profit growth despite a record high cream price, which has a temporary but significant impact on input costs in our butter and spreads business.

“We expect to accelerate sales of demineralised whey and GOS in the second half of this year. In conjunction with our partner Fonterra we are making good progress in developing sales channels for our products.

“Our strong brands and the quality and efficiency of our operating facilities mean that we are well positioned to grow. While we expect butter input costs to continue to be challenging for the remainder of the year, we are confident in delivering our full year expectations.”

For further information:

Investors/Analysts

Tom Atherton
Dairy Crest
01372 472264

Kate Goode
Dairy Crest
01372 472236

Media

Tim Danaher/Oliver Hughes
Brunswick
020 7404 5959

A video interview with Mark Allen, Chief Executive, and Tom Atherton, Group Finance Director, will be available from 07:00 (UK time) from the investor section of the Group’s website dairycrest.co.uk/investors.

There will be an analyst and investor meeting at 9.00 (UK time) today at The Lincoln Centre, 18 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3ED.

An audiocast of the presentation will be available from the investor section of the Group’s website dairycrest.co.uk/investors later today.

This announcement contains inside information.

The directors are responsible for arranging release of this announcement on behalf of the Group.

View the full press release