Hilton Foods Regulatory News (HFG)

Hilton Food Group plc

23rd May 2018

TRADING UPDATE

Hilton Food Group plc ("Hilton" or the "Group"), the leading specialist international food packing business, is today providing a trading update for the period from 1st January 2018 to date, ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held at noon today.

During the period, the Group's trading has been in line with the Board's expectations. We have continued to grow the business through additional volumes and close cooperation with our retail partners. We have also made further strategic progress with our recent announcement in February regarding the joint venture facilities in Western Australia and Victoria.

In Western Europe we have made good progress in a number of markets. In the UK, turnover has grown relative to last year in the red meats business, whilst our Irish operation has continued to experience encouraging top-line growth. Denmark has grown turnover driven predominantly by higher raw material prices. Sweden started more slowly, but in recent months has seen a significant pick up in throughput. In Holland, we are continuing to perform well, providing support to our customer through a focus on new product and packaging development as well as other initiatives. The business in Portugal is continuing to show good progress, processing significant volumes with improved quality and operational KPIs evident in the business. As expected, in Central Europe, we have continued to see an improvement in performance as a result of the initiatives we have taken.

In Australia, plans are now in place for assuming full operational control of the Joint Venture by 1st July, and the development work in relation to the Queensland plant is progressing strongly, with construction work well advanced. We are also working with our customer to consider expanding the Victoria plant to meet future demand.

Seachill had a good start to the year with performance in line with the Board's expectations, following promotional activity in the first quarter of this year.

The Group's financial position remains strong, having put in place facilities to cover current expansion plans. Hilton continues to explore opportunities in which to invest and to grow the business both domestically and in overseas markets.

The Group intends to publish its results for the 28 weeks ended 15th July 2018 on 11th September 2018.

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