Uniq chief executive Bill Ronald is under no illusions about the enormity of the task ahead, but insists Uniq is on a far firmer footing than it was even six months ago.
"There has been a lot of turbulence at the company and I want to see a further six months of solid performance in France before I can say we're locked into a turnaround.
"But there are signs of stabilisation with an 11% year-on-year improvement at Marie in the last quarter."
Meanwhile, Uniq Prepared Foods has had another excellent year in sandwiches, dressed salad, fish based snacks and desserts, clocking up double digit top and bottom line growth in the year to March 31.
Uniq is in the process of launching an indulgent range of desserts with Tesco and is expanding capacity to cope with growth in this area after a highly successful year with key customers such as Marks & Spencer.
The first priority is to stabilise the business and manage the disposal of the yogurts and spreads, rather than a massive turnaround, says Ronald. "But I'm not expecting to see the same scale of exceptional costs in the coming year. There should be a significant improvement in our performance post exceptionals."
In the medium term, Uniq will "very definitely move into acquisitions mode" again. As for the incredible shrinking Uniq phenomenon, Ronald is philosophical. "Rationalisation was inevitable. The old business was forced to change, the old approach of conglomerates would not have worked.
"Obviously there are some successful dairy and meat companies out there, but it's increasingly hard to operate in so many sectors. There is no way we could keep on attacking on so many fronts.
"Sure, Unigate had its heyday, but it has metamorphosed into a different animal, focused on European chilled convenience. If Unigate was keeping 10 plates in the air at once, we're keeping maybe four or five spinning."
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"There has been a lot of turbulence at the company and I want to see a further six months of solid performance in France before I can say we're locked into a turnaround.
"But there are signs of stabilisation with an 11% year-on-year improvement at Marie in the last quarter."
Meanwhile, Uniq Prepared Foods has had another excellent year in sandwiches, dressed salad, fish based snacks and desserts, clocking up double digit top and bottom line growth in the year to March 31.
Uniq is in the process of launching an indulgent range of desserts with Tesco and is expanding capacity to cope with growth in this area after a highly successful year with key customers such as Marks & Spencer.
The first priority is to stabilise the business and manage the disposal of the yogurts and spreads, rather than a massive turnaround, says Ronald. "But I'm not expecting to see the same scale of exceptional costs in the coming year. There should be a significant improvement in our performance post exceptionals."
In the medium term, Uniq will "very definitely move into acquisitions mode" again. As for the incredible shrinking Uniq phenomenon, Ronald is philosophical. "Rationalisation was inevitable. The old business was forced to change, the old approach of conglomerates would not have worked.
"Obviously there are some successful dairy and meat companies out there, but it's increasingly hard to operate in so many sectors. There is no way we could keep on attacking on so many fronts.
"Sure, Unigate had its heyday, but it has metamorphosed into a different animal, focused on European chilled convenience. If Unigate was keeping 10 plates in the air at once, we're keeping maybe four or five spinning."
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