Noble Foods profits increase
Pre-tax profits at Noble Foods Limited increased by nearly £1.4 million in the last financial year, although profits after tax were down.
The company’s accounts, recently lodged at Companies House, cover the period for the year ending September 30 2010. Noble made pre-tax profit of £24.069 million, compared with £22.689 million in the same period the previous year. Profit after tax was £15.546 million to September 2010, compared with £17.114 million the previous year. The results were produced on a turnover of £541.842 million for the year – up from £533.499 million in 2009. Operating profit was up from £22.724 million to £26.352 million.
In its annual report, the company outlined substantial investment it had made in order to comply with the European Union’s ban on conventional cages, which is due to come into force at the end of this year. Noble and its contract producers had together invested a total of £100 million to comply with the change in legislation. The company, itself, had invested £33 million. "The Noble investment in colony facilities is now complete and fully operational," said the report.
Noble said it was also investing significantly in brand development. It pointed to the launch of the Happy Egg brand and spending on national television promotion to support the launch. The report said that Happy Egg now had an annualised retail value of about £55 million. It said, "Brand development, together with our ongoing commitment to category management, form key parts of our strategy to drive volume in the shell egg market by increasing both weight and frequency of purchase."
The directors said in their report that the company was investing in a number of green initiatives, including the use of wind turbines and the conversion of commercial vehicles to LPG, and was exploring methods to generate energy from waste materials.
They said they were confident the company was well placed and had adequate resources for its future development.
Noble said the year ahead would be a challenging one. "An increasingly competitive market place coupled with the imminent industry legislative changes indicate a challenging year ahead, albeit one in which the directors feel the company is well equipped to continue with its recent positive progress," said the directors in their report. "The action we are taking to improve supply chain efficiencies, together with the ongoing levels of investment at our Thornton and North Scarle packing centres, is resulting in improved operating efficiencies," they said.
A dividend of £12 per ordinary share was paid to the parent company, Noble Foods Holdings Limited (formerly Deans Food Group Limited), during the year. This compared with a payment of £7 per ordinary share in 2009
