Hilton Food profits up as revenues, volumes grow

Hilton Food reported a rise in annual adjusted profit, driven by higher revenues across its global markets as it diversified its product offering.

The FTSE 250 company, which supplies food and ready meals to retailers such as Tesco, said adjusted pre-tax profits were up 13% to £67.2m. Revenue rose by a fifth to £3.3bn and the dividend was lifted to 29.7p a share from 26p each a year earlier.

On a reported basis, pre-tax profit fell 12.3% to £47.4m.

Hilton now operates from 19 factories across 16 countries in Europe and Australasia and said acquisitions in the past year had helped it to generate more than two-thirds of revenue, and 75% of its volume outside the UK.

The company bought Fairfax Meadow, Britain’s biggest butcher to the hospitality industry, a Dutch vegan company and a the Foppen smoked salmon business for £76m, the group’s first entry into the US market.

Overall volume increased by 7% on a comparable 52 week basis to 492,588 tonnes, with growth across all protein categories with two-year compound annual growth in meat & seafood of 14.3%, vegan & vegetarian 26.4% and added-value easier meals 36.0%.

Chief executive Philip Heffer said that while inflationary challenges persisted “our model positions us well to provide nutritious, affordable, and increasingly sustainable protein at scale, fulfilling changing consumer demands".

“Against the backdrop of a more challenging environment, with global uncertainties impacting supply chains and inflation, the Hilton Board is confident of making further progress in 2022. We continue to explore opportunities with existing and new customers for further expansion in our domestic and overseas markets,” the company said.