Speaking at the business’ Annual General Meeting, non-executive chairman Peter Baker explained that the group expected trading to be in line with expectations for the full year, and that recent contract wins combined with a strong Christmas will help this happen.
"As reported at the group's full-year results in September, we continue to trade in a difficult environment with sustained inflationary pressures,” he said. “Despite this, our ongoing investment programme, underpinned by our strong cash flow, continues to drive operational efficiency and alongside this, we are mitigating cost inflation through price recovery.
“Whilst weaker customer demand over the summer season has resulted in sales being weighted to the second half, current trading is underpinned by a number of significant contract wins heading into the strong Christmas trading period, which will deliver sales growth in both the first half and beyond. As such, the group expects to be in line with expectations for FY19.”
He added that the Ultapharm integration was on track.“The integration of our recent acquisition, Ultrapharm, is progressing well and additional capacity will be delivered by the end of the existing fiscal year in both Poland, with a new factory lease signed, and in Wales.
“Overall, the group continues to deliver on its strategy, focused on driving growth organically and through M&A. We continue to strive to achieve our vision of being a leading speciality bakery group, producing a broad range of high-quality products that deliver growth and differentiation for our customers, while fulfilling the needs of end-consumers, both in the UK and in Europe."
Finsbury Food Group was recently named Bakery Manufacturing Business of the Year at the 2018 Food Manufacture Excellence Awards. It was also recently part of a trip attended by UK food and drink businesses to improve relations with the Chinese market.
