Premier Foods hails power brand strategy

Premier Foods is to step up marketing activity for its eight “power brands” after reporting that the decision to throw its marketing budget behind brands it thinks have the greatest growth potential led to a 1.1% uplift in first-half sales.

kipling

The food company says total sales rose to £757m in the six months to 30 June . Sales of power brands such as Hovis, Ambrosia and Mr Kipling increased 2% in the period.

In January, the company announced it would double marketing spend on the core brands to £50m this year to grow sales. It has since launched campaigns to trumpet its range of products as well as multimedia campaigns all but one of its power brands.

As a result marketing spend increased by 40% to £24.8m in the first-half, the company says, with second-half investment expected to be up year on year.

In addition to rising sales, Premier claims its marketing strategy has boosted brand health scores such as marketing recall, advocacy and quality. However, no figures were cited.

The investment in marketing is part of a wider strategy to boost income and help offset the impact of its ballooning debt. It has also sold a number of brands and axed hundreds of jobs to cut costs

Chief Executive Michael Clarke says: “I’m pleased with the progress we are making to stabilise the business, re-focus the portfolio and invest in our future growth…. We remain cautious given the current economic and trading environment and our full year expectations remain unchanged.”

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