Robert Wiseman Dairies hits production target
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Reporting its annual results yesterday (18 May) dairy group Robert Wiseman said its new Bridgwater dairy production facility was approaching its first phase capacity of 250 million litres a year and that work had commenced to increase capacity to 375 million litres per annum at cost of £7.5 million.
Construction of new Amesbury depot serving London and the South East was also underway at a cost of £9.7 million.
The company reported sales volumes up 6.9% to a record 1.62 billion litres (2008 : 1.52bn) while turnover increased by 17.4% to £847.7 million (2008 : £722m). Profit before tax declined 9.5% to £32.6 million (2008 : £36m).
The company has also signed a 116 million litres a year contract with the Co-op and with Cappers, a Spar wholesaler, for 15 million litres a year. However, the company had been disappointed at Tesco’s decision to rebalance Wiseman’s current share of the supermarket’s own label range which is expected to reduce the dairy’s sales volumes with Tesco by 40 million litres in the current financial year.
Chairman Alan Wiseman said: "The overall results for the year are satisfactory given the decline in margins experienced in the first half of the year and we have been successful in rebuilding margins in the second half to provide a solid base for our business going forward."
