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Premier Foods Says Year Pre-Tax Profit up 12.2%

Reuters
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Britain's Premier Foods reported a 12.2% rise in pretax profit on Tuesday and said recent acquisitions had outweighed rising raw material costs and the loss of a contract with Cadburys.

The group, home to Branston Pickle, Oxo stock cubes and Crosse & Blackwell cooking sauces said pretax profit for 2006 was 58.1 million pounds ($111.7 million) up from 51.8 million a year ago, as turnover grew 21.5% to 959.4 million pounds.

Premier Foods upped it dividend 6.7% with a 2.55 pence final dividend bringing it to 12p for the year as a whole and said the year had started off as expected.

"Overall trading performance for the year to date has been in line with our expectations," the firm said in a statement.