Bad news travels fast. This week The Grocer has been investigating reports that one of the major supermarkets has de-listed a raft of Premier Foods products. The reports, we found out, are true.
We put the findings to Premier and, by way of response, the company today issued a profits warning to the stock exchange.
“As a direct result of our successful re-pricing exercise, one of our major customers de-listed a significant number of our grocery lines,” the company said today in a statement that raises interesting questions about what constitutes ‘success’ at Premier.
“This cost Premier Foods around £10m in Q2 but the issue has now been fully resolved and the affected lines have been re-listed,” it added.
The company also pointed to a 14% rise in commodity costs and “an unprecedented decline year on year in our markets” hitting the bottom line for Hovis and its grocery business.
Within half an hour of the statement, the company’s share price had fallen by 14% to 18.54p.
It’s a tale of woe, although Premier has done its best to put a brave face on things, returning several times to that pricing strategy and even making some optimistic noises about the state of the economy. And there hasn’t been much of that this week.
You can read all about the de-listings in the new edition of The Grocer. We know which supermarket is involved, but aren’t saying just yet. Don’t forget to check the digital edition when it goes live tomorrow afternoon, or look out for your magazine on Saturday.
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