Somerdale International has published its report and accounts for the year ended 31st March 2023. Despite challenging trading conditions the results were in line with expectations and in the current year the business is continuing to grow and develop.
Trading conditions were both challenging and highly volatile for the majority of the year as rising inflation, linked in particular to the war in Ukraine, drove input costs higher. This in turn had a significant impact on consumer confidence and buying behaviour as higher costs fed through to selling prices and as a result this did lead to a slight weakening in demand for Somerdale’s products. This was particularly the case in relation to lower margin, price sensitive, commodity products. However, this was offset by robust demand for Somerdale’s growing range of premium speciality cheese which performed particularly well in core markets such as the USA and Australia. Overall sales growth in value terms was strong at +22%.
During the year the business continued to build for the future with investment in both its people, premises and production capabilities. This included: a significant expansion in its chilled warehousing capacity at its headquarters in Wellington, Somerset; the taking on of two new trainee apprentices; and continued investment in state of the art packing and IT equipment.
Highlights for the year included:
- Turnover increased to £53.8 million (2022: £44.3 million).
- Profit before tax increased to £2.2 million (2022: £1.56 million).
- The financial strength of the business continued to improve with total net assets increasing further to £5.9 million (2022: £3.0 million).
- In July 2023, the entire share capital of the company was sold to A.J. and R.G. Barber Limited.
Said Trevor Debenham, Finance Director, Somerdale International: “During the 2022/23 financial year despite significant global economic headwinds the business performed in line with expectations. While at the same time, we continued to put in place the building blocks for our long term growth and development through investing in our people, premises and production capabilities.
“In the current financial year, trading remains satisfactory with in particular sales in our core international markets growing both in volume and value terms. We remain optimistic about the long term prospects for the export of high quality British dairy products and are encouraged by the progress we are making in relation to the development of emerging markets such as China, South East Asia and the Middle East. Moving forward we remain committed to offering our growing number of international customers a comprehensive range of the very best British cheeses, brands & packaging formats complemented by service excellence.” For more visit somerdale.com
