Salvesen hit by poor vegetable harvest

The impact of a poor vegetable harvest was today being felt at Christian Salvesen after the logistics group warned of lower frozen food volumes.

Salvesen, which processes and stores frozen vegetables for major retail customers, said the first half performance at its UK logistics division would be affected by the weather-related impact on crops. Storage volumes of frozen vegetable products are also likely to be lower than expected over the rest of the year.

The division processes and stores frozen vegetables for customers at sites in Grimsby, Hull and Lowestoft.

Meanwhile, Salvesen said it had agreed the sale of a separate frozen vegetable business, Christian Salvesen Foods, to Pinguin Foods UK for £17.2m (€11.6m). The business consists of vegetable processing, packing and storage activities at three sites in Lincolnshire.

Salvesen said the business would have “greater opportunities” as part of Pinguin, while the deal allowed it to concentrate on its core activities of logistics and transport.

Overall, for the financial year to date, Salvesen said the group’s continuing businesses had traded broadly in-line with expectations, which are weighted towards the second half of the financial year to the end of March.

Salvesen employs more than 13,000 people at 200 operating sites in the UK, Belgium, France, Holland, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. Major customers include Birds Eye and Marks & Spencer.