Uniq's salad days may be over as fish also flounders

Uniq will hang a 'for sale' sign over its UK salad and fish operations unless it can significantly boost their scale and market shares, the company has warned.

Speaking as the chilled food specialist revealed that profits had again been dragged down by poor UK results, chairman Nigel Stapleton said: "We have strong positions in desserts and sandwiches in the UK. However, we do not have category scale in fish and salads, so we will either get more scale or we'll get out."

Uniq has already downsized a salad factory in Spalding following the loss of a major contract. Now it needed to decide whether to grow salads aggressively or move on, said Stapleton: "However, getting out is not our only option. We don't want to run away from our problems."

The group has announced 500 job cuts, or 6% of the workforce, by 2007/08, as part of a plan to cut costs by £20m a year. A fifth of the job losses will be in the UK, said Stapleton, who has been acting chief executive since the departure of Bill Ronald.

Stapleton said: "The focus in the UK will be building a more balanced customer profile. Tesco has almost a third of the market, but it only represented 2% of our UK business last year, whereas Marks & Spencer represents some 50%."

The company was negotiating a sandwich deal with a major retailer and was building a stronger presence in catering, he added.

Uniq's UK business made an operating loss of £5.8m on a turnover of £325m in the year to the end of March, compared to a £12.8m profit on a £319m turnover the previous year, dragging the group's operating profit down 21% to £28m.