Hilton Food Group meat

Hilton Foods was boosted by the seasonal performance of its retail partner Tesco as it reported a “strong” Christmas trading period in a full year update.

Hilton’s core retail meat saw volumes rise 4% year-on-year helped by the launch of new premium products in the UK.

“The final quarter of the year has delivered a strong performance, with the full-year outturn in line with expectations,” said Steve Murrells, group CEO.

“This success was driven by another solid Christmas trading period and underpinned by our innovative ranges and the growing popularity of beef as a festive centrepiece.”

Darren Shirley, an equity research analyst at Shore Capital, said it confirms a set of strong full year results for the company with robust volume growth reported across all geographies, and “importantly the profit rebuild in UK seafood is as expected”.

“Hilton looks very well placed to return to sustained growth, driving strong cash generation to support investment opportunities whilst delivering attractive returns.”

Tesco – which saw sales rise 4.7% in the six weeks to 4 January – is a key retail partner of Hilton Foods, making up 28% of group sales last year. The supermarket saw particularly strong growth in its Finest range, which was up 15.5%.

“Both [Hilton Foods] and Tesco are calling out continued strong growth in premium products, which we think carry a higher profit per kg rate for [Hilton Foods] and are likely to be an important trend both for retrospective FY24 performance and prospective FY25 performance,” said Sean Kelly, a research analyst at Panmure Liberium.

The business struck a confident tone on the wage inflation, pointing to its “highly automated facilities and strong customer relationships [which] enable the business to effectively mitigate the impact.”

It cautioned, however, that as an international business with two-thirds of revenue generated outside of the UK, FX rates continue to be an area of focus.

Hilton Foods Canada is on track for launch in early 2027, it added.

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