Dairy Crest churns out strong sales of cheddar cheese as spreads suffer
DAIRY Crest said yesterday that Britons tucking into its Cathedral City cheddar cheese had helped offset falling sales across its spreads business in the first half of the year.
The company said first quarter sales of its four key brands, Cathedral City, Clover, Country Life and Frylight, were in line with the same quarter of last year and are expected to be broadly flat for the first half overall.
Clover and Country Life sales have fallen after facing increased competition in the market. But Cathedral City performed strongly, growing sales and market share during the period, Dairy Crest said.
The dairy industry has struggled to cope with falling milk prices due to a glut in domestic milk supply combined with falling demand from China, as well as Russia’s ban on EU dairy products.
Dairy Crest is seeking to ease the burden by selling its loss-making dairies business to Muller UK. The company was given provisional clearance by the Competition & Markets Authority’s this summer and expects to be given a final response on the £80m sale on 19 October.
Shares fell 2.1 per cent to 612.3p.