Marketing director Henrik Pade told FoodManufacture.co.uk that Leeds-based Symington’s, which produces branded and own-label products, had grown turnover from £47m in 2007 to a budgeted £118m this year.
A partnership with the Canadian giant Campbell Soup Company will see Symington’s relaunch the imported condensed soups - which have been reformulated since they were last onsale - in the UK from August 1.
The soups were last sold in March 2008, when Premier Foods chose not to renew its brand licence to use the Campbell's name.
Premier acquired Campbell's UK (including the soup recipes) for £690m in August 2006, and rebranded the soups from 2008 as Batchelors.
Campbell’s condensed soups first appeared in the UK in the 1930s, but their labelling became iconic when used by Andy Warhol in the 1962.
The New York-based 'Pop' artist created a silkscreen work comprising 32 canvases of the cans.
Pade said that 2m cans had been shipped for the initial seven-flavour launch, and that Symington’s had sales forecasts of £30m for the first year.
Bright future
The launch will cost the company £2m but will create 10 new jobs, Pade added, across warehouse, supply chain and finance divisions.
He said the money would be spent on marketing during the first year, and would include press advertising, sampling and (potentially) television sponsorship.
Pade said he believed that that canned soup had a bright future, despite the increasing popularity of fresh, chilled products.
“Ambient products have generally made a comeback during the more pressing economic climate in recent years, where we all increasingly seek value for money.
“And ambient products generally deliver excellent value. We do not believe that this is a temporary issue, but think this change will last,” he said.
Fifth factory site
Symington’s currently has two manufacturing sites in Bradford and a third site in Dartmouth Way, Leeds, but is expanding after securing £10m in funding last year.
HR manager Michelle Wood told FoodManufacture.co.uk last November that the completion of fourth factory in Leeds this year would allow the firm to produce Aunt Bessie’s gravy granules (under licence) in-house.
But Pade said the investment, which will create 40 jobs, had been delayed “due to a change in priorities, with the Aunt Bessie’s gravy volumes being produced on our behalf elsewhere in Yorkshire”.
“The plan is still as was, but now realisation of this is more likely in mid to late 2012,” he added.
But he revealed that Symington’s had just acquired a fifth factory site (a new 30,000 sq ft unit) adjacent to its current Dartmouth Way facility in Leeds.
“Based on this we are now re-arranging our production layout. This is part of our continued growth plan,” Pade said.