Financial Highlights

 

• Sales up 3% to £18.65m (2009 £18.19m )

 

• 22% increase in pre-tax profit* to £1.03m (2009 £0.84m)

 

• Gross Margin increased to 33.8% (2009 32.0%)

 

• 63% increase in earnings per share to 29.28p (2009 17.98p)

 

• Net cash increased to £1.02m (2009 £0.37m)

 

• Dividend increased to 7.5p per share (2009 7.2p)

*Pre-tax profit is prior to one-off items and share based payment deductions. 

Lees Foods Plc profits exceed £1m.

Lees Foods Plc, owners of Lees of Scotland and The Waverley Bakery has announced today Tuesday 24 May 2011 its year end results to 31 December 2010.

Sales increased to £18.65m  (2009: £18.19m). Pre-tax profits before exceptional costs and share based payments rose 22% to £1.03m (2009: £0.84m). Basic earnings per share, from continuing operations rose from 17.98p to 29.28p per share. Dividends have been recommended to increase to 7.5p per share up from 7.2p last year.

Clive Miquel, Chief Executive commented, “2010 was a year of solid growth for Lees Foods.  The increase in our sales was especially satisfying as it was achieved across most product categories.  It is thanks to the efforts of all our staff that during the adverse weather conditions at the end of the year   we managed to minimise disruption to customer orders.

“Improved efficiencies across the operation resulted in gross margins increasing from 32.0% to 33.7%. Overheads remained fairly static other than our increased investment in customer promotions to help drive through additional sales. The combined effect of these factors enabled us to achieve the highest ever level of profit for Lees Foods.

“A large part of our business continues to be with the major UK retailers, and we have successfully increased our penetration into the UK food service sector. Our sales are developing in international markets and whilst this remains a small part of our overall turnover we have made some positive inroads with listings in a number of European retailers.

“Our balance sheet continues to strengthen with net cash balances growing to over £1m at the year end.

“We are increasing our focus on developing the Lees brand. We successfully launched Lees Mallow Dreams earlier this year, the first new Lees branded product for some time. The new Lees website went live in March 2011, and provides the latest information on our developments to our customers and our consumers.  

“In January this year I referred to the significant cost increases that we are facing in 2011, due to the general rise in world-wide commodity prices and the specific cost increases in our raw materials and packaging. However, I’m pleased to report that the steps we have taken to combat the impact of these cost increases have been successful to date. These include our programme of continuous investment in our plant that has positively impacted on production efficiencies, a project that is already delivering benefits in terms of reduced raw material and packaging waste, and a strategic review of our product packaging that has resulted in a meaningful reduction in packaging usage. Importantly we have also achieved our targeted price increases across our customer base for our range of Lees and Waverley products.

“Whilst the outlook for commodity prices remains unsettled we are confident that we have the measures in place to continue our development. The tough decisions that we have taken to mitigate cost increases have made us leaner and put us in a strong position to achieve our future growth ambitions.

For further information:

Cameron Grant / Eve Robertson

3×1 Public Relations

T: 0141 221 0707 / 07771 960326

E: jacgrant@3×1.com