Princes reports UK and continental European sales growth

30 Dec 2011

Princes, the Liverpool-headquartered food and drink group, achieved record sales of £1.184 billion in the year to 31 March 2011, according to latest accounts filed with Companies House.

The company grew sales by 8% during the year (2010: £1.093 billion) and generated a profit after tax of £27.6m, representing a 5% increase on the previous year (2010: £26.2m).

Princes’ portfolio of leading household brands includes Aqua Pura, Jucee, Napolina and Shippams as well as the Princes brand amongst many others. It is one of the UK’s biggest food and drink manufacturers and importers, with 13 production sites and a global workforce of more than 4,500 people.

The company made significant progress during the year with its strategy of expansion in continental Europe, forming a new joint venture bottled seed oils business in Poland with Archer Daniels Midland Company to supply customers in European markets.

From its continental European headquarters in Rotterdam, Princes grew its sales significantly outside of the UK during the year ended March 2011, with international turnover up 40% to £225m (2010: £161m).

More recently, in July this year Princes acquired two major UK canning sites at Long Sutton and Wisbech in East Anglia, along with a number of brands including Crosse & Blackwell, Farrow’s and Smedley’s. The sites collectively employ over 1,000 people. The acquisition, from Premier Foods plc, also gives Princes long-term agreements to manufacture certain products for the Branston and Batchelors brands under licence.

Ken Critchley, Princes Managing Director, said: “We are pleased with our progress during the last financial year and have continued to invest in the development of our UK and continental European operations in the current fiscal year. We have a long-term strategy to expand our group both in the UK and into new international markets by investing in our supply chain through acquisitions and strategic partnerships. This will help us to continue to offer our customers quality products and services with the reassurance of security of supply.”

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