Branded sales ‘truly awful’ in third quarter
Premier Foods announced branded sales had fallen by 4.1% in its third financial quarter because of “increasingly demanding market conditions”.
Premier claimed supermarkets losing share to discounters in the three months to September 30 had impacted on its sales.
Premier Foods said in a statement: “… the larger supermarkets have lost share to these other formats [discounters, such as Aldi and Lidl] over recent months, which has adversely affected the company’s volume and sales performance.
“Additionally, price inflation across the wider grocery market has fallen for the eleventh successive month and is expected to soften further.”
The firm’s ‘power brands’ also decreased by 5.1%.
Shore Capital analysts said the results were “truly awful”.