Sales volumes and turnover for the half-year ending October 3 at Robert Wiseman Dairies were above the company’s forecast.

In total, overall milk sales volumes grew by more than 10% in comparison to the same period last year.
Volumes in this period were boosted by the commencement of increased supplies with the Co-operative Group in June, following the collapse of Dairy Farmers of Britain.
Following the strategic rebalancing by Tesco of its own label fresh milk supply, which took effect from May 2009, the British based fresh milk company’s share of Tesco’s total fresh milk is in line with its forecast.
Robert Wiseman Dairies commenced supplies to an additional 137 Sainsbury’s “Local” stores in April 2009 and also benefited from increased middle ground business, in particular two large Spar wholesalers, Cappers and Blakemore, to which it commenced supplies in June 2009.
Fresh’n’Lo made good progress in the period, with a substantial increase in sales over last year. Sales of “the One”, the company’s 1% milk, continue to grow and were up over 18% on the same period last year.
The company has incurred increased oil related costs in the first half-year after they initially eased during the early part of the year. There have also been some sharp upward moves in recent weeks in the Platt’s resin index for HDPE, which impacts on the company’s plastic bottle costs, and it remains to be seen what direction these costs will take in the second half of its financial year.
Increased capacity at our Bridgwater dairy will be on stream prior to Christmas 2009, slightly ahead of schedule and on budget. This takes the volume capacity at the dairy to 375 million litres per annum from 250 million litres.
Robert Wiseman Dairies reported in its July trading statement that debt levels were running lower than had been forecast and that trend has continued, allowing the company to benefit from lower interest charges than budgeted.
“We are on track for a satisfactory set of Interim Results. Looking forward to the remainder of the financial year, we are in good shape with a sound balance sheet, low gearing and state-of-the-art facilities,” comments group finance director, Billy Keane.