Dairy Crest held its AGM this Wednesday and issued an interim management statement for the quarter ending 30 June prior to the meeting. The UK dairy company, which is celebrating its 20th year as a listed company this summer, said trading during the first quarter was “in line with expectations”.

It said that sales volumes of Dairy Crest's four key brands (Cathedral City, Clover, Country Life and Frylight) are in line with the same period last year.

Chief executive Mark Allen said the outlook for the full year remained unchanged, adding that the year has started off as expected and that the branded business continues to perform well.

Cathedral City brand

The company recently rebranded Cathedral City, the UK’s leading cheese brand, and invested heavily in a promotional campaign. Cathedral City continues to grow market share and remains UK’s 16th largest grocery brand, bought by nearly 60% of UK households each year.

The company said it was seeing the benefits of its investment in infant formula ingredients with improved operational efficiencies.

Last year, revenues for the year ending 31st March 2016 decreased 6% to £422m. Operating profit increased 16% to £54m with margins widening to 12.9%. Some 55% of the company's profits last year came from its branded range of butters, spreads and cooking oils.