Britain’s biggest meatpacker eyes profit surge after ditching vegan arm
The UK’s biggest meatpacker has upgraded its profit target after offloading its loss-making vegan arm. FTSE 250 listed Hilton, which packages beef, lamb and fish, said it now expected to make a pre-tax profit of between £66m and £71m, a 10 per cent uplift from its previous forecast range. That comes after the firm sold [...]
Hilton, the UK's leading meatpacker, has raised its profit forecast after selling its loss-making vegan business. The FTSE 250-listed company now anticipates a pre-tax profit of £66m to £71m, a 10% increase from its earlier estimate. This comes after the firm offloaded its Dutch vegan and vegetarian manufacturing business, Dalco, for £5.4m in July.
Dalco, based in Oosterhout and employing over 150 people, produced meat alternatives for private label clients. Hilton had previously acknowledged the "underperformance" of Dalco and included losses in earlier financial reports. The company attributes the profit upgrade to the removal of Dalco's losses and favorable currency movements.
However, Hilton has also faced challenges due to weak demand from its Dutch smoked salmon arm, Foppen, and rising raw material costs. The firm reported a 15% rise in revenue for the first half of the year, reaching £2.3bn, while pre-tax profit halved to £7.5m. Despite these setbacks, Hilton's chief executive, Mark Allen, believes the sale of Dalco is a step towards streamlining the company's portfolio and that its leadership in red meat will continue to drive medium-term growth.
The firm's shares jumped 8.7% to 686p following the announcement, marking a 38% increase since the start of the year.
Written by urgent.news from City AM's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
