Compleat Food Group’s revenues near £800m amid inflation recovery

The Compleat Food Group revenues grew 13% to £786.2m last year, as it recovered from inflation, won new contracts and made acquisitions.

The Pork Farms and Wall’s Pastry owner generated an operating profit of £17.8m in the 53 weeks ending 30 March 2024, up from £7.9m in the previous year, newly filed accounts show.

However, it is the group’s underlying operating profit of £32.7m (up from £14.7m) that has been used by management to understand performance due to a number of material non-recurring items.

These items include £8.3m relating to the closure and restructuring of its Shaftesbury factory, and £2m on the cost of acquiring new subsidiaries.

The Compleat Food Group announced in March 2024 it would consolidate current operations at Shaftesbury into its Milton Keynes site, resulting in the closure of the Shaftesbury site at the end of 2024.

“Every effort” had been made to redeploy its 133 employees impacted by the closure, the accounts state.

While the Group continued to experience cost inflation pressure across all of its product platforms in both labour and ingredients, profitability improved due to recovery of cost inflation, investing in commercial relationships and through the impact of volume growth.

Over the period, The Compleat Food Group renewed long-term contracts with its retail partners and was awarded new ones, therefore increasing its retailer brand revenue by 6% to £607.1m, excluding the impact of acquisitions.

Building brands

Meanwhile, it continued to invest in its own brands with NPD and marketing campaigns “to further cement their position in the market”. As a result, it increased branded revenue by 21% to £179.1m with Vadasz, Wall’s, Pork Farms, Wrights and Unearthed being the main drivers of growth.

In November 2023, Compleat launched plant-based ‘cheeze’ brand Palace Culture into retail. This was followed by its acquisition of chilled party foods supplier SK Chilled Food Limited and dips manufacturer Zorba from the Entrepreneurial Food Group in February 2024.

During 2024, these acquisitions added £23.2m to revenue and sustained an EBITDA loss of £0.8m, as well as contributing £6.6m to the group’s working capital held on the period end balance sheet.

“We have been pleased to report a positive year for The Compleat Food Group in our journey to become the UK’s leading chilled prepared food group,” said Thomas Riley, chief financial officer.

“This has included continued investment across the business and significant new acquisitions, despite external pressures.

“At the heart of our performance is our ongoing focus on innovation that excites and delights,” Riley added. 

Indeed, The Compleat Food Group recently launched two “first-to-market” innovations under its plant-based Squeaky Bean brand: ready-to-eat tofu slices and a fermented rye burger.