Premier praises manufacturing programme

In a trading update for 2008, the group announced full year Group sales up 9% and said it anticipated adjusted pre-tax profit to be as high as £190 million. In addition, Premier said its relaunch of the Hovis bread brand was delivering healthy market share gains, the group’s manufacturing rationalisation programme had been completed, and synergies at RHM and Campbell, which it took over last year, continued on plan. Speaking about the operational improvements, chief executive Robert Schofield said: "The manufacturing phase of our transformation programme is now complete - a fantastic achievement by a first class project team, resulting in significant improvements in operational efficiency across our supply chain. The completion of the manufacturing programme now enables us to move our focus on to new product development and innovation. "The significant momentum we have generated in the second half of 2008 in both our Grocery and Hovis divisions and the enhanced efficiency of our manufacturing base give us confidence that Premier is well positioned to meet the challenges of the current economic downturn. We look forward to making further progress in 2009."