Sandwiches up and puddings down at Uniq

Sales for the year as a whole grew 6.8% to £312m, food to go sales were up 8.3% in the quarter with growth down to successful innovation and range development in the sandwich business. The full year sales of food to go were £157m, up 13.0% on last year. However, the sale of desserts (including cottage cheese) in the quarter were down 1.7%, held back by a continued disruption to core sales caused by price increase, lower Cadbury sales due to fewer promotions and a previously announced loss of cottage cheese volume – a product Uniq has decided to stop producing this year to concentrate the resource at its Evercreech factory entirely on specialist desserts. Underlying Desserts sales (excluding cottage cheese) grew by 6.0% in the quarter and by 5.1% for the year as a whole. The full year sales of Desserts in total (including cottage cheese) were £155m, up 1.5%. Discussions to fix Uniq's pensions black hole are continuing, the company said and while they are yet to be concluded, the current proposal involves a restructuring of the company in which the scheme Trustee will release the Uniq from its obligations in exchange for a 90% shareholding in the company and a cash contribution to the Pension Scheme of £15m. Discussions were also proceeding well, it said, with Lloyds for the provision of a £25m facility to the Company, subject to the successful completion of the deficit for equity swap. Chief executive Geoff Eaton (pictured) commented: "Our overall performance for 2010 is broadly in line with our expectations, reflecting a stronger than expected performance in Food to Go and continuing losses in Desserts. These results are a credit to the management team and have facilitated further progress towards resolving the legacy pension situation. Looking to 2011 we expect to make further progress although rising commodity prices are adding to the pressure of an extremely tough marketplace."