Northern Foods relies on Goodfella’s
NORTHERN Foods has said it hopes the relaunch of Goodfella’s pizzas will help it to cope with tough trading conditions as it yesterday repor?ted flat annual profits.
Chief executive Stefan Barden said the firm aimed to replicate the success it achieved with the relaunch of its Fox’s biscuits, which lifted it to number two in Britain’s biscuit market behind privately owned United Biscuits.
“We have high hopes for this,” he said of the pizza revamp, which includes new recipes and an advertising campaign featuring the “pizza fairy”.
Barden added that pizza sales could also get a lift from the World Cup, which starts this month. Northern Foods, which also makes own-label products for retailers as diverse as premium food seller Marks & Spencer and discounter Aldi, posted profit before tax and one-off items of £39.2m for the 53 weeks ended 3 April.
However, taking into account changes in pension fund contibutions profit dropped by 28 per cent.