Nestle buy is sweet for Richmond

THE unseasonably warm Easter and ensuing four weeks of balmy April sunshine gave a welcome boost to Britain's largest independent ice cream producer, Richmond Foods. Like-for-like sales rose by 15% during April and by 60% once the benefits of the recently acquired Nestle business were taken into account.

Richmond said integrating the Nestle business, which it bought in October for £9.85m, had cost it just under £1m. The Nestle ice creams are mostly of the 'eat now' or impulse variety and sales in the winter months met expectations.

Richmond specialises in the less weather-specific own brands for supermarkets or the 'eat later' market and sales continued to rise in the six months ended 31 March leading to a 30% rise in turnover to £42.5m. There was a small operating profit of £209,000, up 5%, but pre-tax losses were 14% higher at £720,000.

With the Ashford and Telford plants now closed and ice cream making concentrated at Richmond's state-of-the-art factory at Leeming Bar in Yorkshire, production costs will be cheaper than before.

Richmond said it was confident that full-year results would 'show a significant improvement over those of 2001' and added: 'Sales will benefit from the higher emphasis of branded sales in the eat now market.'

The dividend is unchanged at 5p.