Premier Foods trims down

That's because sales of Premier Foods' support brands fell 5 per cent, while non-branded products suffered a 13 per cent sales decline. Together, these account for almost a third of group sales. The underlying trading profit, which strips out business disposals, did rise 50 per cent to £47m, but the lion's share came from cost-cutting as Premier delivered its full-year sales target of £20m earlier than planned. A further £10m of savings has now been earmarked for the second half.

At the divisional level, a major restructuring of the bread business is progressing ahead of plan: two bakeries and a mill were closed in the period and a bakery in West London will shut in August. That's just as well because, while branded bread sales grew 1.8 per cent to £185m, non-branded sales fell 8.3 per cent. The restructuring will cost £28m for the full year, of which £15.9m was incurred in the first half. Milling sales jumped a third to £115m, thanks to higher pricing.

In the grocery business, branded sales edged up to £343m, helped by a 4 per cent rise in powerbrands, although this was offset by non-branded sales, which slumped 19 per cent.

Broker Panmure Gordon expects full-year EPS to fall from 26.8p to 25.2p, and is pencilling in a flat outcome in 2014.