Hilton Food Group, the Northern Ireland-based secondary meat processor, saw operating profits soar by almost a third (+32%) in 2018 to reach £46.3m (€54m). Profit margins in the business expanded slightly from 2.6% in 2017 to reach 2.8% last year.

Hilton recorded very strong sales growth during the year of 22% as turnover for 2018 hit £1.65bn (€1.9bn). This growth was primarily a result of the company’s acquisition for £81m (€94m) in 2017 of Icelandic Seachill, which is a UK-based seafood company supplying salmon and whitefish to Tesco. Hilton had net debts of £27m (€31m) by year-end.

The company said the volume of meat and fish that it wholesaled to supermarket customers increased by 14% in the year to just under 345,000t.

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Hilton is very reliant on a narrow range of customers with just four supermarkets (Tesco, Ahold, Coop Denmark and ICA Gruppen) accounting for over 90% of sales.

Tesco alone accounted for over £900m in sales last year, or 55% of the entire business.