Profits more than halved at frozen foods specialist McCain UK last year. The reason for this was “one of the worst potato harvests in 40 years,” the company said. Newly filed accounts for the year to 30 June 2019 show McCain’s operating profits fell 63% to GBP21.3m from GBP57.6m a year earlier, on overall revenues that dipped 0.3% to GBP509.9m.
A McCain statement said that low temperatures and heavy snowfall in 2018 followed by a dry summer led to one of the weakest potato crops in more than 40 years, which had an impact on its financial performance.
“Unfortunately, this is the reality of working in agriculture. However, we remain optimistic and as industry leaders we continue to be the UK’s largest manufacturer of frozen potato products.”
The company said it maintained a value share of 54% and a volume share of 42% of the UK frozen potato category, according to IRI data for the 12 weeks to 20 June 2020.
“We continue to work closely with growers to help them mitigate the extreme weather we have been experiencing and recent challenges caused by Covid-19 to ensure we fulfil our contracts, maximize the usable crop and maintain the quality of our products and the sustainability of British agriculture,” McCain’s statement concluded.