McBride trades in line YTD despite uncertain macro outlook

Manufacturing business McBride said on Wednesday that it had continued to trade in line with internal expectations year-to-date despite "uncertainty in the political and macroeconomic environment" leading it to hike prices.

McBride stated it was making "solid progress" with its strategic initiatives and had "significantly improved" customer service levels following the appointment of a new logistics director.

However, whilst McBride said the cost of most raw material groups was now steadying, input costs for certain raw materials were said to have continued to climb to all-time highs.

"Strong control of our cost base has balanced these higher costs in the early part of the year such that the group has traded in line with our expectations," said McBride.

"Supplies of certain raw material and packaging items remain tight and additionally energy concerns as we head into the winter are driving input prices further upwards and production of certain key materials downwards. Consequently, the group is continuing to seek mitigations with customers either through further price increases or product engineering with the size of the required margin recovery widely varying between product families."

As of 0915 GMT, McBride shares were down 6.40% at 23.40p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com