Premier Foods to outline growth strategy

Premier Foods, which owns the Bisto, Mr Kipling and Hovis brands, is expected to outline its growth strategy to investors today.

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The company is attempting to reduce its debt, which currently stands at around £1.4bn, and earlier this year offloaded its vegetarian brand Quorn to Exponent Private Equity and Intermediate Capital Group for £205m.

Premier has not ruled out selling off further brands.

Premier Foods is currently seeking a new CEO to lead the business after incumbent Robert Schofield, recently agreed to step down from his role by April next year.

Last year, Premier overhauled its senior management structure and appointed former Hovis marketing director Jon Goldstone as first group marketing director role in a bid to accelerate the growth of its brands. Former Hovis chief operating officer Tim Kelly became its first group COO.

Goldstone was tasked with reviewing its brand portfolio and identifying which brands would drive faster growth and boost performance.

At the time, he told Marketing Week that Premier planned to invest bigger budgets in fewer brands as part of its turnaround strategy.