Sales in the larger Cake division were up 9.2% compare with last year at £152M. Both the UK market and export sales through its Lightbody Europe 50% joint venture demonstrated growth, with the latter providing half of the growth.
Sales in the Bread and Free-From division continued to deliver high levels of growth, up 10% on the prior year to £55M, driven by strong growth in the fresh gluten-free market and Vogel’s brand growth in the speciality bread market.
Finsbury’s consumer markets and operating environment continued to be challenging throughout 2011/12. Key core ingredient inflation on items such as sugar and egg in particular necessitated price rises. However, investment and efficiency initiatives across the Group helped to minimise the impact on margins, said the firm.
Chief executive John Duffy said:"The Group has come a long way to achieve annual sales of over £200M for the first time, despite very challenging market conditions.
“This is testament to the hard work and resilience of the management teams and the quality and breadth of products they produce. With no let up in market conditions anticipated we continue to invest in growth areas and improved efficiency to maintain this success."
The company claimed these results represented yet another year of strong organic sales growth.
