Hovis relaunch campaign boosts sales

The £15m relaunch of Hovis helped boost Premier Foods’ turnover by 22.5% last year.

The food maker, which also owns the Mr Kipling and Bisto brands, says group turnover hit £2.6bn in the 12 months ended December 31 from £2.1bn in 2007.

Premier relaunched its Hovis brand in September with new packaging and a two minute television advertisement created by Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy that celebrated the brand’s 122nd anniversary. The ad shows a young boy depicted in different eras running home after buying a loaf of Hovis.

The company says the marketing push increased Hovis’ market share by 2.44% to 24.7% of the bread market.

Robert Schofield, chief executive of Premier Foods, says: “ We believe that with the momentum developed in our grocery business over the last four months of 2008, combined with the successful relaunch of Hovis and the remaining integration synergies, we are well positioned for further progress in 2009.”

The group also confirmed its plans to raise £404m of capital as it looks to reduce its £1.8bn worth of debt . Despite registering a 14.3% increase in trading profit to £320.2m, exceptional items dragged the company to a net loss £373.3m.