Dairy Crest Regulatory News (DCG)

26 Sep 2006 07:02

Dairy Crest Group PLC26 September 2006 26 September 2006 Dairy Crest Group plc ("Dairy Crest") Trading Update In line with its normal practice, Dairy Crest is issuing the following pre-closetrading update for the six months ending 30 September 2006. Overall the Group has performed solidly in the first half and we expect resultsto be in line with our expectations. The highlights of the first half have been the continued strong performancesfrom Cathedral City and Country Life. We have also recently extended the CountryLife brand into both cheese and organic milk. In the second half we expect tobenefit from the recent acquisition of the Express Dairies doorstep and middleground business from Arla Foods UK plc and the proposed sale of the majority ofour retailer brand cheese operations to First Milk for £61.9 million, which weare announcing separately today. Foods Country Life has performed strongly both in packet butter, where it is the onlymajor butter brand demonstrating year on year growth, and in spreadable, whereit is the strongest growing brand. Clover has strengthened its position as themarket leading dairy spreads brand. Overall our spreads branded sales have beenflat due to a weaker performance from Utterly Butterly and St. Ivel Gold. Cathedral City has once again delivered double-digit growth with a further brandextension - Cathedral City Mild launched in May 2006. We have also recentlylaunched a range of premium cheeses including cheddar and stilton under theCountry Life brand. As expected there has been some downward pressure on cheesepricing in the first half, mainly at the commodity end of the market, resultingfrom higher industry cheese stocks. Yoplait Dairy Crest has performed in line with expectations with good growthfrom the Weight Watchers and Wildlife brands offsetting a weaker performancefrom Petits Filous. Dairies In Dairies we continue to focus on improving operating margins in our majorretail milk business. During the first half we have been retained as a keysupplier of fresh milk to Sainsbury's following their recent supplier review.Frijj, our market leading fresh flavoured milk brand, has returned to goodgrowth now that we have increased production capacity. Distribution of St. Iveladvance has grown during the period and we have also recently launched CountryLife organic milk to take advantage of the strongly growing organic market. The household business has performed well in the first half and has benefitedfrom the acquisitions of Midlands Co-op Dairies and Arla London Foodservice lastyear. We acquired the Express Dairies business from Arla in August for aconsideration of £33 million. This acquisition is currently subject to "holdseparate" undertakings with the Office of Fair Trading. Drummond Hall, Chief Executive of Dairy Crest, commented: "This has been an active six months during which time we have significantlyreshaped the Group through the Express Dairies acquisition and the proposed saleof the majority of our retailer brand cheese operations. Overall the Group hasperformed solidly in the first half and we are particularly encouraged by thecontinued strong performances of Cathedral City and Country Life. We expect to report first half results in line with expectations and to delivera good outcome for the full year." Interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2006 will be announced on9 November 2006. For further information, please contact: Dairy Crest Group plc Will Shaw, Investor Relations 07919 568498 Nicole Lander, Media 07801 235756 Brunswick Simon Sporborg 07974 982442 Laura Cummings 07974 982492 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange