Associated British Foods has raised its profit forecasts for the full year as sales mount, driven by higher prices and shoppers’ resilience amid the cost of living crisis.
The parent company of Twinings and Kingsmill saw a 13% jump in sales to £1.05bn across its grocery business for the 12 weeks to 27 May 2023.
Trading across Associated British Foods’ (ABF) food business had “continued to be good” as it saw “strong constant currency sales growth in grocery and ingredients largely driven by the necessary pricing actions taken earlier in the year to offset input cost increases.”
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Its ingredients business saw a 10% rise in sales to £547m, while sugar saw a 51% surge to £665m.
ABF noted that this comes despite British Sugar having to secure alternative sources of supply due to production shortfall in 2022/2023 harvest.
However, after delayed planting, it said the 2023 UK beet sugar crop is now “progressing well”.
As a result of a positive sales uplift across the group, the food processing company has adjusted its operating profit for the full year to be “moderately ahead of last year”.
