Potato recall costs manufacturer nearly £600k
About 45 own-label ready meals and salad lines sold in Tesco and Sainsbury were recalled in May 13 last year due to the risk of metal contamination at the Telford-based potato processing firm.
Produce investments said the incident cost the company £571,000 and this amount would be included in its financial statements for the year ending June 25 2016.
The financial impact of the recall was previously estimated to cost the company as much as £1.5M.
Swancote blamed the recall on the failure of a part in one of its blanching machines which caused the contamination.
‘Regain confidence’
It has since changed a number of processes and was “working closely with our affected customers to restore full supply and regain confidence”, according to Produce Investments ceo Angus Armstrong.
In spite of the recall, the company has reported an increase in operating profits of about £1M during the six months leading to December 26 2015 and described its trading as “robust” in the following six months.
Produce Investments expected to report full-year results that were in line with market its expectations.
Shares in the company have increased to 147.5p from 125p following the news of the settlement.
Shares have increase
Recalls can be damaging to both a company’s profits and its reputation and you need to know what to do if they happen to you.
You can learn how to minimise the damage caused by recalls and how to strengthen your product recall plans to reduce financial and reputational damage at our Food Safety Conference on Thursday October 13.
Meanwhile, FoodManufacture.co.uk asked risk management firm Arthur J Gallagher for five tips to avoid recalls that could cost millions of pounds and untold reputational damage.
