Geest benefits from fat of land

FAT is now a two-way winner for Geest, with sales of lettuce soaring as the country gets more obese - and guilty. The food company has the weight-obsessed Brit in a pincer grip. Washed salad sales were up 25% in 2001, but to reward ourselves for being so healthy we pig out in the evening with pizzas and cakes also supplied by Geest, whose pizza sales grew 20% last year. Then we atone for the binge with another dose of diet food at lunchtime the next day.

Although Britain is the world's biggest market for chilled meals, they still account for less than 1% of food eaten. Finance director Mark Pullen said: 'There is plenty of headroom in the UK. We can't see that this kind of growth isn't going to continue.'

The company spent £13m on a state-of-the-art salad-processing factory in Kent as part of £72m capital expenditure programme.

Pre-tax profits for the year to 29 December were up 11% at £40.7m as sales soared 17% to £663.8m. Earnings per share are up 15% at 44.6p and the full dividend is 12% ahead at 17.3p.