Cranswick PLC on Tuesday said its half-year revenue increased and profit climbed due to capacity expansion, market share gains and a strong performance from premium products.

The Yorkshire, England-based food producer said pretax profit increased by 3.8% in the six months to September 28, to £90.2 million from £86.9 million year-on-year.

Revenue grew by 6.1% to £1.33 billion from £1.25 billion a year prior. The company said the growth was volume led. Like-for-like revenue growth was 5.8%.

The interim dividend increased by 10% to 25.0 pence per share from 22.7 pence previously. The dividend will be paid to shareholders on January 24.

The company said trading during the period was ‘strong’ across the core UK food product business, with premium added-value categories performing well and poultry revenue growing strongly.

It said the outlook for the current financial year, ending March 2, remains in line with current market expectations, which the company sees as adjusted profit before tax between £189 million and £193 million. Last year, adjusted profit before tax was £176.6 million.

The company said it is ‘cautious’ about the current market and wider economic and geopolitical conditions but said trading momentum has continued into the third quarter with a strong Christmas order book.

Cranswick added the half-year adjusted operating margin increased to 7.5% from 6.8% a year prior, which it said was due to the growth in pig farming, capacity utilisation and tight cost control.

Chief Executive Officer Adam Couch said: ‘We have delivered another strong first half performance with good volume-led growth through capacity expansion and market share gains from close alignment to our key long-standing customers and a relentless focus on quality and industry-leading service levels.

‘We continue to grow our poultry business and we have now committed to spending almost £50 million across our vertically integrated poultry operations...Investment in our agricultural operations continues at pace with a further acquisition completed during the period alongside ongoing organic expansion. We now have the largest pig farming business in the UK which is producing over 34,000 finished pigs per week with self-sufficiency maintained at well over 50%,’ he said.

Shares in Cranswick were down 4.8% to 4,827.31 pence in London on Tuesday morning. Shares are up 24% over the past 12 months, however.

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