McCain: Chips favourite doubles profit to £100m in three years

Profit at the UK arm of potatoes giant McCain Foods surged to almost £100m during its latest financial year, it has been revealed.
The North Yorkshire-headquartered UK arm of the Canadian giant has reported a pre-tax profit of £98.7m for the 12 months to 30 June, 2024.
The figure, revealed in new accounts filed with Companies House, is up from the pre-tax profit of £77.3m McCain achieved in the prior year.
The latest total means that McCain has now almost doubled its pre-tax profit since the end of June 2021.
The new results also show the firm’s revenue jumped from £712.5m to £799.1m over the same period.
McCain’s UK revenue grew from £692.4m to £781.1m in the year but its sales in the rest of Europe dipped from £18.6m to £15.6m. In the rest of the world, its revenue rose from £1.5m to £2.2m.
McCain: Farmers battle ‘challenging conditions’
A statement signed off by the board said: “The business had to manage multiple challenges across the supply chain impacting costs and supply.
“Farmers faced weather-related challenges throughout the season due to wet weather as well as increased pressure from rising input costs including fuel and fertilisers.
“Despite this, sales growth was positive across both sectors [retail and food service] and the business continued to support the long-term sustainability of agriculture through higher contract pricing in line with indexation and supplementing high energy costs for our storage growers.
“The company continued to make significant investments throughout the year in both capital, including the renewal of the Scarborough facility, and the brand, including media advertising.”
On its future, McCain said: “As a brand leader, the company believes it can continue to stimulate growth in a planet-friendly way, through innovation, quality and service and continues to invest in capacity to support this growth.
“The company has a crisis management plan in place to respond to risks, including Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine crisis.”
An interim dividend of £8m was paid for the year to 30 June, 2024, but a final dividend has not been proposed.
McCain Foods was established in 1957 and has its global headquarters in Toronto, Canada.