Trading update: Another record year at Lees Foods

Coatbridge / UK. (lf) Lees Foods PLC, owners of Lees of Scotland and The Waverley Bakery, has announced on 06 January 2011 an update to its 2010 trading performance. Group sales closed at approximately 18,7 million GBP for the year to December 2010, around 2,5 percent ahead of sales in 2009. Pre tax Profits for 2010 are expected to be in line with current market expectations. CEO Clive Miquel: «We are pleased to report an excellent performance in 2010 that has built on the record year that we had in 2009. Our Balance Sheet continues to strengthen with net cash balances growing significantly in 2010. Sales growth was achieved across most product categories which was very satisfying especially given the adverse weather conditions we experienced in December. However the tremendous efforts made by the staff to both get into work and clear snow, enabled trucks to be despatched and minimised disruption to customer orders. Towards the end of the year we were hit by unprecedented commodity and packaging cost increases. As an example, the price of coconut, an important ingredient for Lees, has more than doubled over recent months. It is too soon to estimate the net impact on the business for this year, as we are working very hard to mitigate these increases both through improved efficiencies and by passing a proportion of these costs onto our customers».