Fire costs Branston Pickle factory £10m

The owner of a Branston Pickle factory wrecked by a fire in October today estimated it lost at least £10m (€14.1m) in sales because of the blaze.

Premier Foods, which also owns Typhoo Tea and Ambrosia, said the disruption was likely to have left underlying sales flat in 2004, rather than the 1% it could have achieved without the problems at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

The company resumed production of Branston Pickle within three weeks of the fire and used reserves and outsourcing to ensure brands, including Loyd Grossman sauces and Haywards Pickles, were available in the run-up to Christmas.

Premier expects the factory to be operating at full output again by the end of February.

It added that Christmas sales had been slower than expected but that annual operating profits and margins should still be within market forecasts.

In a trading update, the company said the fire meant that sales in the convenience foods, pickles and sauces division would be slightly below 2003’s figure of £374.6m (€530m). It said the impact on 2004 sales had been around £10m (€14.1m).

Premier said: “Without this reduction, we anticipate sales for this division would have been ahead of last year.”

St Albans-based Premier employs more than 4,000 staff and has factories around the UK, including at Wisbech in Cambridgeshire and Long Sutton in Lincolnshire. Other brands include Sun-Pat peanut butter, Gale’s honey and Waistline salad dressings and soups.