You've got the usual crew here today: myself, Chris, Jim, Mark, as well as Tim, and a number of other of our senior leadership team here as well. I know it's only a few weeks since we saw you since the Capital Markets Day, but before we start the results presentation, I want to address the recent Mail on Sunday article and the distressing and wholly unacceptable farm behavior reported. It's important to stress this isn't and doesn't reflect Cranswick's incredibly high animal welfare values and standards. Those of you in this room that know me, you know our team, you know this business, appreciate how devastating this has been for us all and how strongly and rapidly we will respond to that. We're considered industry leaders in this sector, and animal welfare footage that we've seen here falls far short of the standards that we expect.
The Northmoor farm itself was acquired back in August 2023 as part of the wider Elsham Linc business. It is one of 18 farms in total that was purchased, and we immediately invested in the infrastructure, the people, and particularly the culture of the business, knowing that the Cranswick sites are judged to operate to a high standard. This work continues today. We immediately suspended all the members, all six members of staff on that farm. We also self-suspended the farm from the Red Tractor Assurance, and we had advised all our customers of the situation and suspended all movements and instigated a full investigation. Cranswick's protocols and animal welfare training were well known and well understood by the farm staff, and they understood those. Yet, despite this, the standards expected were not followed, and disciplinary proceedings have commenced.
We have reiterated and accelerated training across the business, and in the 14 months since this footage was taken, we had already started installing smart learning monitoring systems, which include behavioral analysis across our indoor systems. We have also reminded all our colleagues of our whistleblowing procedures, which were already prominently displayed across the business. Most importantly here, and to provide further assurance to both customers, shareholders, and stakeholders, we commissioned an independent veterinary-led welfare review of our standards and protocols, and we will update the stakeholders once this has been completed. We are now operating in over 400 farms, with 45 of these being indoors. Over the last three years, we have grown this through acquisition and investment accordingly. We continue to improve and invest in these sites and the people that run our farms. We have some of the most experienced and dedicated teams in the sector.
I can assure you that Cranswick will raise the bar in terms of animal welfare and ensure that our standards are fully, consistently applied across the business going forward. Now, if we can turn to the points in hand on page four, as you know, we always like to include this slide as we're incredibly proud of our long-term track record. Despite all the challenges that we faced, we've continued to drive the business forward at pace, and I'm delighted to be confirming today our 35th year of unbroken dividend growth. I want, on the following page, to briefly reflect on some of the many commercial and strategic highlights throughout the course of the year.
Revenue increased by almost 7%, underpinned by volume growth of almost 8%, driven by strong growth in premium, added value, further strong growth in poultry, and what was a record trading period over the Christmas period. Adjusted operating margin increased to 7.6%, reflecting a strong contribution from the growing agricultural operations, excellent capacity utilization, investment in automation, and tight cost control. You'll recall Jim covered in the Capital Markets Day that we've expanded long-term supply arrangements with many customers at the retail level. Investment across our agricultural operations has continued at pace, with our own pig production increasing by 14%, taking self-sufficiency now to over 55%. Across our poultry farms, we've secured the necessary space to enable the move to lower stocking densities.
However, this requirement, which is for a further 20% space required for the same number of birds, does place additional pressure on what is an extremely strong growth industry. This has been starved of investment over recent years, but we're prepared to continue investing in this sector at pace to grow our own business and support the wider industry at a time of rising demand. We spent a record GBP 138 million in capital expenditure across the estate, making significant progress on delivering earnings, enhancing projects that will add capacity, expand capability, and drive further efficiencies. In addition to the record capital expenditure, we completed several complementary acquisitions, including the GBP 24 million purchase of JSR Genetics.
Through the integration of a leading pig genetic producer, we can improve the eating quality and the volume that we produce from our own supply, and this will further support the premiumization and deepen those customer relationships. Finally, pleased to announce the Blakemans acquisition on last Friday. We've known the business well over the last 15-20 years or so. Phil and Sue are well known to myself, who are the Blakeman family, and we've had a close working relationship with these guys. Blakemans is a well-invested manufacturer of raw and cooked sausage. The business specializes in producing to the food service sector and therefore is highly complementary to our existing added value gourmet business. We look forward to welcoming the entire Blakeman crew on board to Cranswick and working to develop further.
Just onto slide six, just going to give a quick brief on these before Mark jumps into them, but this just demonstrates some of the key financial metrics. We continue to deliver on the ambitious growth plans with discipline. I've already highlighted the strong volume-led growth and improved operating margins. Adjusted earnings per share was 15.6% ahead of the corresponding period last year. Our cash generation has been strong, our leverage remains low, and we've maintained return on capital employed at over 18.5% as we continue to effectively deploy capital at pace. Finally, we're increasing the dividend by just over 12% to GBP 1.01 per share. On that point, I'll now hand over to Mark, who will go into more detail on the financials.
Thanks, Adam. Good morning, everyone. As Adam said, I'm going to spend the next few minutes running through the FY25 highlights. Throughout the presentation, as always, unless I state otherwise, I'll be referring to adjusted numbers, which exclude the impact of IAS 41 biological assets, amortization of acquired intangibles, and impairment of intangible assets. It's also worth pointing out that last year was a 53-week accounting period, so year-on-year movements and references to 2024 comparatives will be represented on a 52-week equivalent basis again, unless I state otherwise. As always, you'll find full reconciliations between adjusted measures and the statutory measures in the appendices at the back of the pack. Another look at the financial highlights on page eight of the deck. We've made incredibly strong progress over the last year, delivering another set of record results.
Over the period, revenue is up 6.8%, adjusted PBT is 14.3% higher, and EPS and DPS are 15.6% and 12.2% ahead, respectively. Our cash conversion continues to be extremely strong, with free cash flow of just under GBP 240 million. Net debt, excluding leases, increased by just GBP 39.6 million over the period, despite a record GBP 138 million spent on CapEx and GBP 25 million spent on M&A. Now, just looking at those financials in a little bit more detail on slide nine, you can see that the slide shows financial measures on a reported basis against 2024, but also on a comparable 52-week versus 52-week basis as well. I will just focus on those 52-week comparatives as we go ahead. Revenue at GBP 2,723.3 million increased by 6.8%, with like-for-like revenues ahead by 6.4%, reflecting strong volume growth of 7.7%.
Adjusted operating profit increased by 14% to GBP 206.9 million, with operating margin strengthening to 7.6%, some 48 basis points higher than FY2024. Adjusted profit before tax, GBP 197.9 million, was 14.3% ahead, and adjusted EPS at GBP 2.734 increased by 15.6%, slightly ahead of the increase in PBT, reflecting both a slightly lower adjusted tax rate and a modest reduction in the number of shares in issue compared to FY2024. We are proposing to increase the final dividend by GBP 0.0087, or 12.9%, to GBP 0.76 per share from GBP 0.673 per share last year. Combined with the interim dividend of GBP 0.25 per share, this gives a total dividend of GBP 1.01 per share compared to GBP 0.90 per share last year, an increase of 12.2%. As Adam has already mentioned, this extends the period of consecutive years of dividend growth to 35.
Return on capital employed at 18.5% increased by 7 basis points compared to last year. Our strong return on capital demonstrates our ability to deploy capital at pace to generate strong returns and to deliver sustained compound growth. Now, looking at revenue in a little bit more detail on slide ten, on a comparable 52-week basis, as I have already mentioned, revenue is up 6.8%, with volume growth of 7.7%. Our category performance was strong across the board, with the exception of convenience, where growth was lower due to stepping away from some lower margin cooked meats business at the start of last year. You may remember that we flagged this at last year's presentation. It is also worth noting, from a revenue perspective, the milestone achieved by our fresh pork business.
When you take into account the sales made internally to our added value businesses, total fresh pork sales from our three primary processing facilities surpassed GBP 1 billion for the first time. Our fresh pork export revenue was 10.2% ahead, with a strong second half following the reinstatement of the Norfolk China export license. Poultry revenue was 20.3% ahead, with the onboarding of new premium retail added value business driving an improved sales mix and increased volumes. Our pet revenue grew by just under 48%, reflecting the ongoing successful rollout of the Pets at Home business. Now, looking at margin in more detail on slide 11, through consistent targeted investment, we have continued to deliver margin progression across all key metrics, with margins now improving for six consecutive half-year periods. Gross margin increased by 100 basis points to 15.4%. EBITDA margin increased by 50 basis points to 10.8%.
Operating margin was similarly 48 basis points higher at 7.6%. That 50 basis point gap between the gross margin and EBITDA movements is explained by the benefit of GBP 5.7 million of insurance receipts received last year, which were accounted for as other operating income. Stripping this number out brings the improvement in EBITDA and operating margin more into line with that uplift in gross margin. Margin improvement reflects, as Adam mentioned at the outset, that strong contribution from our growing agricultural operations, excellent capacity utilization, continued investment in automation, and a relentless focus on cost control. Now, moving on to the balance sheet and cash flow on slide 12, you can see our net debt bridge there, with net debt increasing by GBP 73 million to GBP 172.4 million, including GBP 132.7 million of lease liabilities.
Strong EBITDA-related inflows of GBP 293.2 million were offset by an investment in working capital, including biological assets, of GBP 44.3 million. Some of this is that step up in biological assets of nearly GBP 9 million. There was also a slight adjustment on receivables, where we adopted early an amendment to IFRS 9 relating to cash in transit via electronic transfer, which comes into force next year, but we brought that in a year early. Tax paid in the period was GBP 41.5 million, which is just GBP 0.1 million higher than last year. As I mentioned, again, record investment in CapEx and acquisitions of GBP 160.6 million was significant, and I will provide more detail in a moment or two. Dividends paid in the year totaled GBP 49.5 million. That was GBP 5.6 million up on last year, reflecting the increase in the FY24 final and FY25 interim dividends.
We also made EBT, our purchase of shares for our EBT, our employee benefit trust, of GBP 25.3 million in the period, and lease payments totaled GBP 22.2 million. The value of lease liabilities within net debt increased by GBP 33.4 million, primarily reflecting the increase in chicken rearing space needed following the industry-wide move to lower stocking densities. As you can see, despite all this, we have maintained an investment-grade balance sheet, and with very modest levels of bank debt and gearing, our leverage still remains comfortably below one times. Now, turning to page 13 and looking at our cash flow performance over the longer term, you can see over the last eight years, and indeed going back much further, our cash performance has been consistently strong. We have generated over GBP 1.2 billion of free cash flow over this period.
Of this, we have reinvested over GBP 700 million in CapEx and GBP 198 million in M&A. In so doing, we continue to strengthen our business and grow our competitive advantage. We have also returned over GBP 250 million to shareholders through our progressive cash dividend policy. As a reminder, you can see on the right-hand side, we have a GBP 250 million revolving credit facility, which extends through to November 2026, and we have access to a further GBP 50 million on the same terms, with the facility providing generous headroom to continue our growth strategy. Now, looking at investment and that record investment in more detail, we invested GBP 138 million across our asset base this year, with significant progress made on the pipeline of earnings-enhancing major capital projects. Some of the key ongoing and completed projects are covered on the slide.
The four big ones that we've called out consistently, we spent GBP 63 million across those. We continue our GBP 62 million multi-phased expansion project at our Hull primary pork processing facility, which is progressing as planned. I should add that we've now also committed a further GBP 35 million at that site to lift capacity in due course from 35,000 to 50,000 pigs per week, and that project is due to be completed by the end of March 2027. The GBP 25 million of our fitting out of our hummus and dips facility in Worsley, Manchester, is ongoing, with the initial phase I part of that now successfully commissioned. The GBP 29 million expansion of the two added value poultry sites in Hull is now substantially complete, with the new business onboarded.
The GBP 22 million project to increase incubator and processing capacity at the Kenningh all and Eye sites, respectively, is underway. As I mentioned, despite this record investment, ROCE has been maintained at 18.5%, and deploying capital at pace over the long term and delivering consistently strong returns on that invested capital is one of the hallmarks of Cranswick's long-term success. I will not go into too much detail on this slide, but it is one you should all be familiar with by now. It sets out our value creation model alongside our recently updated medium-term targets, and we continue to deliver successfully against this model. I am pleased to report good progress against all the targets that we updated at our recent capital markets day back in March. We have a sustained capital allocation framework, which you can see on slide 16.
We will continue to invest in the business to support our growth strategy, with medium-term CapEx guidance of circa 50% of EBITDA to add capacity, build capability, add automation. Having invested GBP 138 million in FY 2025, we still have a very strong forward pipeline. We will maintain an investment-grade balance sheet with targeted leverage of less than two times EBITDA. We will maintain a progressive dividend policy with cover of at least two and a half times EPS to DPS. This was maintained in FY 2025 with that 12.2% growth in dividend per share and cover of over 2.7 times adjusted earnings. We will continue to explore complementary targeted bolt-on M&A with returns ahead of our group WACC. We successfully delivered the GBP 24 million acquisition of JSR Genetics during the period, and as announced today, completed the GBP 32 million acquisition of Blakemans last Friday.
Turning to page 17, we presented this slide for the first time at the capital markets day back in March, setting out how our attractive business model and strategy is well aligned to delivering strong compound growth, and our FY25 results demonstrate just that. Over the last five years, we've delivered double-digit compound revenue growth and improved operating margin by 62 basis points. We've consistently generated strong cash flows, which allow us to invest at pace across our asset base and in targeted M&A, with two acquisitions completed in the last five months. We've delivered a return on capital employed in the high teens, well ahead of our weighted average cost of capital. Our business model has proved to be incredibly resilient despite the challenges faced and has enabled us to increase our dividend for the thirty-fifth consecutive year.
Our business model and strategy are built on solid foundations with an unparalleled quality asset base, depth of management, and balance sheet robustness. These attributes set us apart from our competitors and form a platform which will support the continued ambition and growth of the business over the next financial year and the long term. Now, turning finally to slide 18 and looking at our forward guidance for FY2026, including the ten-month contribution from Blakemans, we expect revenue growth in FY2026 of circa 7%, adjusted operating margin of circa 7.5% in line with our medium-term target, finance costs of approximately GBP 12 million, and an effective tax rate of 26.3%. As highlighted at our recent capital markets day, we now expect our investment in CapEx to accelerate going forward to around 50% of EBITDA.
Before I hand over to Jim and just to summarize, we have grown revenue by 6.8% with volumes ahead 7.7%, adjusted profit before tax increasing by 14.3%, and adjusted earnings per share up 15.6%. Our cash generation is strong. We have invested at record levels, and we are increasing our full-year dividend by 12.2%, our 35th consecutive year of dividend growth. Our robust and sustainable business model deploys capital at pace to drive strong and compound returns. On that note, I will hand over to Jim.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. In the usual format, I will cover off the key commercial developments of the year, starting with a bit of market context and then on to our performance in the 2024 to 2025 period, and then finishing with the outlook for this current financial year. Over the page on to page 20.
The fresh and chilled market growth continues, and the biggest percentage growth driver would be within M&S up 11.2%. As you can see from the scale here, they're actually making significant progress to be almost as big as Morrisons. When you context that with Morrisons used to being a retailer that we contextualized as one of the big four, I think it's a real standout to the performance M&S have delivered over recent years. Tesco obviously increasing sales in the largest absolute terms at plus 6.8%, with Sainsbury's up 7.3%. These are trends we've been seeing in recent periods, and very much more of the same with Sainsbury's and Tesco leading the large range retailers, and M&S putting a stellar performance in from a premium point of view.
Looking at the discounters, Lidl are very much leading the charge there and actually delivering the second largest growth in market share after M&S, they're up 9.7%. On the chart below, volumes across the main proteins are growing despite some fairly significant inflationary pressure on all these sectors. I think when you look at actually the underlying performance of beef, which was already the most expensive protein, even with that fairly significant inflation in the sector, consumers are still continuing to demand protein, very much in the form of meat, and meat's very much back on trend from a health perspective, and customers really recognize in the particular protein element of the benefits of eating meat. As you can also see, there is even from a small base, no growth whatsoever other than price in the meat-free space.
Moving over the page on to 21, I'm just looking at our own commercial progress within the year. We've seen resilient demand across actually all our categories despite that backdrop I mentioned of inflationary pressures and the pressures on the consumer spending ability as well. Volumes holding up extremely well. Meat consumption continuing to grow as that key source of protein in the health as part of a healthy diet. The growth has been spread very equally in all categories, but even faster actually in the premium tiers. Obviously, M&S's performance is one way of pulling that out, but you'll see as well very much in our premium space, we're really seeing a drive for premium going forward very much as consumers are consuming more calories in the home rather than out of home.
The inflation I mentioned has been well managed in the main through our open book strategic models, including the annual resets to reflect labor, national insurance costs, utilities, and overheads. Very much helping to deliver that stable and improving margin position across the group. We're working very much with our large strategic customers to build longer-term plans to deliver supply chain resilience and alignment, really helping deliver their strategic objectives around value, quality, and sustainability. Service levels over the periods have been excellent again, building on our reputation and particularly over that festive period, which is so important as mattering for the demand profile, but also so important to fitting up consumers and customers alike in their own market share delivery.
We're continuing to grow organically our own market share within existing categories through securing increased share of the categories we are working with retailers on, as well as securing new contracts and new retail business across the various product areas around the group. We're also well aligned to those retailers that are winning that I mentioned on the first slide, and we have an incredibly strong innovation pipeline focusing on health, premium, and convenience, including some quite transformational product ranges launched during the year. Just to pull a few out, we launched a full range of Heritage Gold Pork in M&S. This was using a specific breed that we had selected for eating quality through higher intramuscular fat. We actually, in a similar format, relaunched Tesco's Finest Pork with a similar treatment with the Duroc pig, again selected for eating quality.
Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Super Premium Sausages have been relaunched, going very much back to the roots of the original Simply Sausage recipes using fresh ingredients and natural casings, and also a very iconic range from the Yorkshire Baker business working in conjunction with Tom Kerridge for some premium gastro meals for Marks & Spencer. We are also bringing on additional capacity throughout the group, supporting this growth, underpinning our confidence that we will continue to grow there. Moving over on the page on to page 22 and just looking at the kind of shape of that volume-led growth. Fresh pork sales are up 4% on the year.
Retail sales actually driving most of that growth, particularly via the performance of Sainsbury's and Tesco's that I've mentioned, and the overall volume there up 9.4%, reflecting that reduction in the cost of rearing pigs and the pig price year on year. Sales in convenience grew at top line, which is pretty pleasing despite the loss of that discounter volume that Mark mentioned earlier, and actually an impact of a temporary import ban at Continental on German products in Q4, which has since been recovered, and we are now shipping as normal. We're incredibly well set for growth in this business, and actually that lost volume has now been replaced at Cooked Meats with a new customer onboarding, and actually that's aligned to a long-term deal as well. Much better quality and more sustainable business that we've replaced that for the year ahead.
We've had a superb performance in gourmet, aligned to that premium growth I mentioned at +8.8% as premium ranges outperform. Our sausage and bacon business has done particularly well in the year with record volumes over that key festive period, actually packing 78 million pigs in blankets this year. For the first time, some of those have been automated, and going forward, we'll be 100% automated on our pig in blanket production. We grew with additional volume in McDonald's to support their breakfast with cooked bacon, as well as an expansion in our range of retail ready-to-eat cocktail sausages, leaving volumes up 12% overall.
Yorkshire Baker performed extremely well with some of those iconic products I mentioned in M&S, most notably the Tom Kerridge meals that sold so well that we were literally securing every single beef cheek we could get that was approvable for an M&S supply chain. Our poultry business grew by 20% with an increased number of birds processed at Eye, up to 1.6 million at peak, and a new value-added customer embedded in Co-op's being onboarded with the U.K.'s largest retailer. Cranswick Pet Products sales were up by 47.8%, and if you compare that to the volume change, that really highlights the quality and better quality sales and a better mix there with more premium supporting that Pets at Home volume, as well as new volume awarded in phases II and III of the Pets at Home business, as well as the development of a new range called nutribalance.
Re-looking at this from a channel perspective, retail sales leading the charge up at 7%, and very much even though that's our biggest channel taking an ever-increasing share of group revenues. Manufacturing sales were down. That mainly reflects the diversion of that meat into our further processing business rather than selling to third parties in the wholesale market. Food service over the period has been quite a challenging market at kind of macro level with the pressure on ingredients, labor, and utilities all clashing with a constrained consumer. Consumers, as I mentioned earlier, are consuming more calories in the some, and the QASR sector is finding there's a bit of a price ceiling that the consumer's willing to pay. However, it's our view that this market will recover and will become interesting again as cost of living crisis and the likes of it works its way through the system.
We're very much in the same format as the retail space. We are aligned to the best performance in particularly McDonald's, but also Greggs. Export sales rose by 8%, particularly driven by the reinstatement of the China license in Q4, with increased volume of China beans shipped from the beginning of January, increasing the number of loads per week from around 170 containers per month to around 240 containers. Over the page on to 23, just looking at the outlook, and the outlook for next year looks extremely positive with growth opportunities again in all categories based upon our strategy of building long-term customer partnerships, leading innovation, and iconic and differentiated product ranges. In our core pork-related categories, we've secured and grown our business with Sainsbury's on a 10-year deal.
We've embedded our business further with M&S, again on a long-term agreement, and Yorkshire Baker has been awarded what they call a fortress factory status, which is for those really important businesses that add differentiation and value to M&S, and that will be supported on an open book model underpinning the margins there. We're actually growing our business even with the discounter, the likes of Lidl, on long-term arrangements linked all the way back to the production and the cost of producing pigs. Obviously, that export license at Norfolk being reinstated sees us fit with the full year effect of that. Moving on to chicken and Continental. At the beginning of this financial year, we began onboarding a new ready-to-eat chicken contract for a premium retailer, and this will step change volumes again at both the value-added chicken facilities embedded and cooked.
This has been very much innovation-led with the removal of all ultra-processed ingredients, which have been replaced with all natural marinades. We have expanded again the Ramona's range for some of this year with several selection packs and exclusive ranges for our two largest customers. Also in the Conti category, we have been awarded sole supply of all of Morrisons' Continental Meats, bringing on the two power categories in that area, the Spanish and the Italian ranges. The Pet business is placed to grow again with the full year effects of that business that was onboarded in the last financial year, as well as some really strong cattle growth plans aligned, as well as some new and exciting innovation planned within this category during next year.
We've now agreed our first new own label contracts for hummus and dips, one of which is already launched, and the other will be onboarded at the end of September when the new Worsley site capacity is completely on stream. Finally, as announced yesterday, we've acquired a new food service sausage and bacon cooking operation, which complements our Gourmet Kitchen business, bringing on new capability in frying, as well as extending our convection oven capacity as well, which is much needed. Greggs is the anchor customer there, and a clear market leader in that QSR breakfast space is certainly the one to be backing from that point of view. On that note, I will hand back over to Adam to take us through the strategic review. Thank you.
Yeah, thanks, Jim. I'll briefly go through the strategy.
We presented it, as you will recall, not even a couple of months ago at the capital markets day before, quickly moving on to Q&As. On page 25 here, the growth strategy continues to build on the key strengths of the business, and this has remained consistent over many years, as you'll be aware. We continue to grow the cash-generative nature of the core range through the focus on affordable and healthy proteins. The added value products that resonate with consumers. We'll continue to invest in the supply chain and across the asset base to drive this efficiency. We'll deliver further expansion through the focus on white space, the opportunities, and unlocking adjacent categories. We're going to extend the operational leadership and increase capacity through the significant pipeline of return on capital employed, enhancing investment projects. With increased capacity, we're determined to capture further market share.
We continue to diversify and strengthen the business through a focus on the innovation, the complementary acquisitions across our supply chain and across the categories and markets in which we operate. We will deliver and drive the expanded categories through diversifying our product ranges. Over the last 10 years, we have now delivered compound annual growth rate in excess of 10%. Adjusted profit before tax, earnings per share, and dividend per share growth are all comfortably in excess of this 10%. With the continued focus we have outlined, I am confident the strategy of consolidate, expand, and diversify will continue to deliver the strong and sustainable compound growth for the long term. Finally, on summary and outlook, over the last 12 months, we have now delivered strong revenue growth, strengthened the operating margin, and completed several returns-enhancing acquisitions.
We have a substantial capital investment pipeline with major projects underway across our fresh product range, our poultry, and as long as our Mediterranean foods. This totals over GBP 138 million. We continue to deploy capital at pace, as Mark alluded to before, across the business with the strong associated returns this offers. We made a positive start to the new financial year with momentum for the final quarter of 2025 continuing through the first six weeks of this new financial year, reflecting continuing robust demand for our pork and poultry product ranges. We today announced the acquisition of the Blakemans business, and our growth strategy remains firmly on track. We'll take questions from the floor if that's okay first before moving on to the moderator for any coming from outside the room. Thanks very much, Charles.
Charles Houle from Pale Hand. With the acquisition of Blakemans, can you just comment about that segment, how much appetite you have to expand in that area and what level of spare capacity you've got at their facility?
Yeah, I'll kick that off, Jim, and then if you, there's ample capacity for further expansion there. It's a lovely business. It's the Blakemans business, and it's been known to certainly me for well over 20 years or so. It's an area we underperform in food service generally anyway, so it absolutely complements the wider business itself, and it lends to a lot of our product ranges that we deliver from that fresh pork operation, so our three fresh pork sites. I think more than that, it unlocks many customers that we would have historically not focused on or certainly had the intent on pursuing.
I think from that point of view, it gives us a huge inroad into that food service arena, not just through acquisition, but obviously from an organic growth from that site as well. I do not know whether you want to comment on that, Jim.
Yeah, probably the only other thing is just the access to markets. I think their distribution channels are somewhat different to us to get to more kind of disparate customers that we cannot deliver with kind of full trucks and that kind of thing. I think it will be very complementary, and obviously the Greggs would be a common customer on both sides of the business.
I think it's a very good strategic fit in a market, as Adam says, where for many years we've been underweight and have ambition to at least maintain and grow at the same pace as the rest of the group, let's say. Is there an opportunity to improve margins with internal supply? We already actually supply Blakemans quite an amount of raw material, hence the kind of long-term relationship we've had with the guys. I think certainly what it will allow is that kind of model of more stable margins as we've done elsewhere with kind of back-to-backing and understanding the margin all the way through rather than being too market-related. I think it would be certainly a stability play, I would say for sure.
One other question, Adam, if I may.
Just we obviously discussed the poultry or potential poultry expansion at the cattle mart today. Can you just give us an update on latest thoughts, given it tends to move quite quickly in planning permissions?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's still a huge frustration, as you know. I think Tim alluded to it in his commentary on the results as well. We continue to engage at every level. We're looking at a number of different geographical footprints now in which to expand the poultry operation. I have one or two live discussions going on at the moment, but these do move at glacial pace, unfortunately. We've yet to see any improvement in the planning system of any note, but we do push at an extremely high level.
Fortunately, with Tim's connections in government as well, that message is pressed home at every single occasion that we can possibly get in front of ministers and stakeholders.
Lovely, thanks. Thank you.
Damian.
Okay. Thank you. Morning, everybody. Damian McNeil from Deutsche Numis. First question. Over the last sort of couple of years, we've seen a really strong performance of premium private label products. I'm just wondering what sense you have that that momentum can continue and whether you can sort of give a sort of an indication of what proportion of the growth has come from premium this year, please.
Yeah, is that one of mine? I mean, I think we've been saying that for about 15 years, haven't we?
You'll be right one of these days.
Yeah.
No, I think there's, you know, if you take, you know, as I mentioned, M&S's performance, I think where they're presenting consumers with food, which is as good and as interesting as they continue to do, if we can kind of match that, you'll see as normal a range of some of our innovation over the last 12 months. You know, consumers have a huge appetite for more interesting and better quality foods. I think what we've seen as well is combining premium and health. You know, those kind of, I talk about premium health and convenience. They're not exclusive. You can actually develop products with a combination of all those. If you take that healthy protein play, overlay that with quality products, you know, you're hitting the kind of sweet spot.
In the same way, if you can mix health and convenience, you're really helping shoppers to, you know, to meet their needs. I think my overall comment would be we spend such a small amount of our overall income on food. I think that really leads to the ability to premiumize, particularly in the affordable categories of pig and chicken. You know, it's very much in that affordable premium space, but, you know, some absolutely superb products at the back of the room which do not cost an arm and a leg.
I think that the increase in recognition of the value of good quality protein in a diet is actually landing home there. If you think for the last 15-20 years we've sat here, we've seen the advent of meat-free alternative proteins. They've kind of fallen away.
There is a general acceptance of the necessity of having good quality proteins in a balanced diet. If you consider the two proteins that we're involved in, Damian, pig meat and poultry, they're both affordable and really lend themselves to premiumization. Just look at it from a carcass equivalent point of view, you've got cattle trading at GBP 7.50 a kilo. You've got lamb not far off there. You drop to pig meat at GBP 2.50 a kilo and poultry at GBP 1.60-1.70. It lends itself to those key categories that we're involved in very much so in terms of premiumization.
Okay, very clear. Perhaps just one last one on M&S and just what you're doing to support them through the sort of issues that they've got on the supply chain side.
Yeah, I mean, I suppose our job is just to keep them in supply.
I think overall volumes into M&S have been, you know, pretty steady and consistent with what we would normally put in. Clearly, they've got a lot of challenges there in terms of getting it to the right stores at the right time. You know, given the situation, I think they're doing an exceptional job actually. You know, if you go in stores as I did this weekend, you would not massively know as a consumer. The stuff's on the shelf and they're doing it, doing a fabulous job actually.
Okay, yeah, different to Co-op. That looks totally different.
Morning all. Thanks for taking my questions. Matthew Abraham from Berenberg. First question, just in reference to the CapEx step up next year, you provided a bit of a split of efficiency and growth for CapEx this year at the half year result.
Just wondering if you could divide that GBP 150 million for next year between efficiency projects and growth projects, please.
Yeah, somewhere between 60%-70% of our CapEx generally is earnings enhancing. So whether it's capacity expansion, capability build, or automation and efficiency driving, that has been pretty consistent over several years. And when you look at the scale of the big projects that we've called out today and we've been consistently calling out, they are big, you know, sort of growth projects. And that is the majority of what we are of that major CapEx bill. If you look at, you know, we need a lot less than that to keep the business ticking over. But even then, when we talk about maintenance, quite often it's replacing kit with the latest generation kit where you'll get faster throughput speeds, better yields, lower giveaways.
There is that constant, you know, that's why we depreciate aggressively because we know we're going to be turning the kit over pretty frequently. We've got the balance sheet and the cash resources to do that. We can and do replace at pace. There is a lot, you know, as you can see, there is a lot going on across the business and we've got a very, very strong pipeline of earnings enhancing CapEx as we look forward.
Okay, that's helpful. I guess as a follow-on from that, given there is a consistent split, bit of step up in the quantum of CapEx, is the guidance then for a small dilution in EBIT margin a reflection of, you know, the significance of some of those labor cost headwinds that you're facing, or is there prospect of upside risk to that guidance?
I think, look, I think always, you know, that guidance is that margin guidance is our medium-term guidance. I do not think we want to look at the next six months in isolation, let's say. We had a strong outturn for this last financial year, as Jim mentioned, record Christmas trading, which was very strong. I think over the medium term, that 7.5% is where we expect to be. I do not see it as dilution far from it. Clearly, when there is a big sort of tail end of immature projects, it has an impact, but we have had that for some considerable time. Yet we have been stepping our ROCE, you know, our ROCE has been improving, you know, almost quarter on quarter, certainly year on year.
When you look at that GBP 138 million that we spent this year and still improving our return on capital employed, it shows that, you know, that level of investment is driving strong returns.
Okay, thank you. I'll pass it over.
Yeah, thank you, Clive Black from Shore Capital. Three if I may. Firstly, I mean, it'd be remiss to not say that's an outstanding set of results, but there's always room for improvement. How do you see the prospects in the convenience division, which, like the rest of the other categories, please?
Jim, do you want to cover that?
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I referenced it a little bit in my monologue, but, you know, we stepped aside or decided not to continue with a certain piece of business that wouldn't have had margins that were palatable.
have since replaced that volume, which came on stream very recently, and there was a headwind from that export ban on the German stuff at Conti, which is a big, big, it is the spine of the volume in terms of the products that we slice as well. It had quite a big impact there. I think we are well set up for a different set of numbers next year.
Thank you. Greggs talked about 6% cost headwinds this year. I think we are only six weeks into Rachel Reeves's new paradigm and the COGS environment. How do you see your cost environment in the next year?
Yeah, I think, again, as Jim mentioned, we knew about the national living wage and national insurance increases back in November. I think it was new news when we were sat here six months ago.
The commercial teams and Jim can sort of talk with far more clarity and detail on this than me, because he's at the coal face of all that stuff. Those discussions started straight away. We have, as we continue to mention, models in place, cost of production models. Clearly there are detailed and lengthy discussions in all of those areas, but we're well placed as we now enter the new financial year. Certainly those cost headwinds, you know, we've had to manage those, Clive. We talked about a very significant on cost when you've got well over 15,000 people in the business. That, you know, that step change in national insurance and the step up in the national living wage and associated wage increases that follow on from that is significant.
Lastly, I mean, I have to say for a FTSE 250 company to make the comments that Adam and Tim, the Chairman, did today is, you know, quite remarkable. What is it you want from what is admittedly a dysfunctional British government? And what would that actually mean to shareholders if some things come through? Because I see, to repeat, they are profound comments from a listed business to be making about the U.K. state.
Yeah, it comes down to planning again, Clive. It's quite extraordinary, as you know. I've spoken at length on this. You know, we're looking to deploy capital, best part of GBP 500 million in the poultry sector. This is a sector that hasn't benefited from significant investment since our site was built back in 2019 and into 2020.
GBP 500 million will be spent within the farming sector as well as in the processing side of the business. Highly frustrating not to get those, especially at a time when stocking densities have been decreased. Even to stand still, there will be 20% more space required. Without planning, it just becomes extremely, extremely difficult. That is the unlocking that they have been promising since coming to power last June, July time, whenever it was. Those would be the key area. If you want growth and we are looking to employ a significant amount of capital and employ best part of 3,000 people in a sector that is growing, it just does not seem to make sense, especially when you put it in the context of the trade deals in the U.S. where they are trying to unlock chlorinated chicken and the likes coming into the U.K.
You know, we're only 65%-70% self-sufficient in poultry, 50% in pig meat. We must be better than that. We have to be better than that. We just keep pressing the cases in every available format we can. I don't know whether you want to add anything to that, Tim, really, that we haven't already discussed.
No, the answer is the single word of growth, which is the government's primary objective. Anything that gets in the way of that, we are the exemplars of in terms of planning restrictions. The kind of external trading environment for us is very positive. Export opportunities are bigger than import risks. Adam's frustration is borne out every time we get into a planning discussion. Nothing more to add.
Thank you.
Ashton.
Hi guys, Ashton Olds here from Redburn.
My first question, I suppose, touches on what you've just discussed. It's just around imports. I suppose there's a bit of noise coming out of the U.S.A. trade agreement. When I looked through the HMRC data, I think the clear standout is the amount of Polish poultry which is coming into the market now. I appreciate that some of that's probably because of the supply constraints in Britain. I suppose I'd be keen to understand how your customers think about the trade-off of longer lead times, possibly cheaper prices, their attitudes more broadly to it. You know, if supply increased, would that Polish import go away? Just any thoughts you may have there.
Yeah, I mean, I think you answered the question yourself. The drive for Polish was purely around availability.
It was not around the retailers or desire to source from that region, but purely needs most of where the constraints in the supply chain eventually manifested themselves.
Sure, okay. My second question is just around the export business. Historically, there was some chatter about bolstering this business, more boots on the ground, and sort of developing more, you know, trade agreements with overseas partners. I suppose not having the Norfolk license over the past few years has been disruptive. Equally, the Chinese pig price has come down. How are you sort of thinking about the progression of this business over the next five years or so?
Yeah, the only help of the Chinese export market, whilst not as lucrative as it once was, was absolutely vital to that business and the consistency of supplying to China being a very key area for us. It does deliver significant improvement having got that export license recovered. I mean, we welcome the trade deal that was discussed yesterday. In fairness, that will cut the red tape if it does get delivered. There will be significant cost implications there. The devil's in the detail, of course, and the timing of it is to be questioned. We're pretty good on our exports. You know, we punch above our weight in terms of export. We've got about a third of the market of pigs to be processed, but we'll probably represent half of all the volume of export from an export trade out of the U.K. on pig meat.
It's an area that we do focus on extremely heavily. Even into the U.S., despite the trade tariffs, we still have a good impact in some of those regions.
I think, Ashton, just sorry, just adding to that as well. Of course, with that planned increase in capacity as well, that 35,000-50,000 pigs in due course at Preston, a third of the weight of every carcass is exported. That will drive stronger export sales when that additional capacity comes on stream in due course as well.
I think what's important to note on that site as well, the site that Mark's referring to there, the investment that's currently going in there, which will be best part of GBP 100 million over a three-year basis, will improve automation and cold storage and help mitigate a lot of the cost increases that we're seeing in the wider business as well, make it super efficient. You know, it's a 7,000 pallet cold store that we're building with an automated blast freezing facility. It will add significantly to the efficiencies that we're looking to unlock.
Sure. My final question is just a follow-up on what Charles was asking earlier around the poultry supply chain. Does sort of the delay in that one planning application or rejection, rather, does that stop plans for a second fresh processing site in Eye?
Or does it sort of just put it on ice for a while?
No, we're progressing. We're progressing all these. As you know, we've been thwarted in a couple of planning applications in and around the past. We still continue as normal. There's small bearing in the grand scheme of how many farms that we do operate in. No, we're still progressing on about three different geographies. It could be one or two. I mean, the timing of this is very difficult to call. Andy, I think.
Thanks. Andy Wade from Jefferies. Continuing the theme of poultry and planning. How much sort of runway have you got to keep delivering sort of double-digit growth in poultry? When does it become a problem that you're not going to be able to keep delivering that because of constraints?
Following on from that, how confident are you you can get it? What sort of lead times do you need in order to keep delivering on that front? Those are interlinked questions on the poultry planning side.
Yeah, you pick them. Yeah, I think in terms of the pipeline of growth, Jim alluded to the new contract, which is a new retail contract in added value poultry, which has just started in the last few weeks. That is significant and will give us very strong growth during the course of this year and then be annualizing into FY2027.
We have talked about the CapEx investment at both the I facility itself and the associated incubator capacity at the Kenningh all site as well, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of this financial year and will give us that further step change in primary processing capacity through FY27 and into FY28. There certainly is a strong growth pipeline, but at some point we will need that additional capacity. You know, if you look at from putting spades in the ground to building the site, it is 18-24 months realistically. We might do it faster given the experience we had from I itself. Ideally, we would like to be getting that approval sooner rather than later so we can start that process whilst we are still very much in growth mode. Yeah, I will hand over to Adam.
Yeah, I think it's fair to say, Andy, if you had a plant today that was doing 2 million birds, you would sell that product overnight. The demand is there, the growth is there, the capability we've got is there as well. We've got a fantastic management team in that business. You would have customers at the moment. You've seen a number of retailers bringing in, from Ashton's earlier comment, from Poland, you've got product coming in from Germany, then packed in the Netherlands. That isn't sustainable. This is a short shelf life product. You've got eight, nine days life on this. You're losing two of those in that cold chain. It is important that we start supplying from our own and become more self-sufficient.
It is, as you can see, I'm really passionate about it, but it just does not make sense what this unlocking of the planning system does have to absolutely happen.
Great, thanks. Good color, thank you. And then follow-up one, I think probably from Mark, but GBP 150 million of CapEx, so near 20% ROCE and GBP 200 million of operating profit or PBT. Just sort of mathematically, how do we get down to 5% EPS growth?
The question you're asking that everybody, I guess, is interesting. Look, you know, we've always, you know, sort of set out, you know, targets that we believe we can deliver on. There is a lot of CapEx, you know, there is risk associated with that CapEx. There's risk associated with, as we've clearly seen, in risk and reward in becoming bigger farmers as well. I think we have to balance all that out.
If you look at our historic track record, you know, and Adam called it out, compound annual growth rates of over 10% consistently over the last decade and beyond. Look, we'd love to be talking about that as our forward guidance. We'll certainly do our best to try and deliver it, but I'd rather be chasing forecasts that we believe we can deliver rather than chasing something that proves to be unattainable. That is very much how, you know, we've always operated, you know, under promise and over deliver. That is how we're going to continue to guide and run the business going forwards.
Very helpful, thank you.
Thank you, Gary.
Morning on, Gary Martin here from Davy. Just a couple of questions from me, just maybe moving away from poultry for a second and just talking about the pet food business. I see that you've added additional capacity.
I just think it would be useful at this stage to get an idea of what kind of surplus capacity you have, you know, relative to where your nameplate is at the minute and whether you hope to potentially onboard further new business beyond what you've talked about in terms of the Pets at Home pipeline. That's my first question.
You covered that, I'm aging.
You're going forward.
Yeah, I mean, we've been successful in securing new extra volume from Pets. That will take our capacity up pretty much once we've done the CapEx investment there. So anything further than that, we would need a further ramp up in investment on that operation or we'll look elsewhere on an acquisition basis. But we'll be pretty much utilized the full extent by probably the end of this year, Chris, I think is my guess, isn't it?
That's right.
That's good color.
Maybe another one, just a bit of a high-level one just on the recent proposed U.K. citizenship changes in terms of the requirements there. Is that any kind of a headwind for Cranswick or what is your thoughts on that?
Yeah, the detail of this has not yet been, has not yet been flushed out. We understand that the qualifications in order to work for us move what was called an RQF3 to an RQF6, which goes from A level to degree level educated. We are covered for the time being. There is no pressure in the short term on there, but that could prove a degree of headwind. We are more than comfortable that we have got that covered.
The big benefit that we had over the last three to four years, as you will recall, is Philippine butchers coming into the business that are not just in our butchery area business, but in our sites, but also on farm now as well. You know, we're pretty well covered on that front. It's not a pressing issue at this stage, but we'll have to wait to see what the devil in the detail is.
Indeed. Thanks. I'll pass it on.
Oh, super. Thanks. Hi, Matthew Webb from Investec. Two questions, please. First on self-sufficiency in pigs, up at 55% now. I mean, as you continue to grow your business, can you maintain it at that level or even push it higher? Are there assets out there for you to continue to grow your farming operations or indeed, you know, expand your existing ones?
That's the first question. And then the second, just on the CapEx, you know, if we're looking at GBP 140 million-GBP 150 million going forward, are there any, you know, logistical, practical difficulties of spending at that level in terms of availability of equipment, staff to fit it, et cetera, et cetera? You know, I know there have been in the past. Are we entirely through that?
Thanks. I'll cover both these off if I can, Matthew. The pig self-sufficiency, we've never set ourselves a goal that we must be this certain percentage. As you recall, we've indicated in the past that that could actually drop, and it probably will do with the increase in productivity levels that we can achieve out of our operation in East Yorkshire. So it's not a goal. You know, we've got a good level there.
I think it's probably limited what more we could do in an acquisition format because the assets that we've acquired over years have needed a significant amount of investment. And Rick, who's in the room today here, is really responsible for putting all that investment into those operations. You'll probably see some degree of organic growth there, but probably unlikely to be anything major in acquisition terms that just simply them aren't out there. In answer to your question, Matthew, on CapEx, Chris doesn't seem to struggle spending the money, if truth be known. He's very adept at it. We can manage to get it. Sometimes timing's sometimes challenging, you know, to get them in any particular year and they can bleed over into another year. It's not something we've got some really hungry teams out there.
The way we organize our business in its autonomous format means the guys have really dedicated to spending that money when in that given year. He is not shy of having guys knocking on his door saying, "We need to move this forward." It is, yeah, a pretty well-worn path.
I think it is fair to say, just adding to that as well, you can see from the second half of this year that almost that sort of caucus, you know, sort of popped. You know, we spent GBP 47 million in the first half, did we not? Then GBP 90 million or so in the second half, just highlighting that that sort of does supply chains and equipment lead times have eased.
That's certainly been helpful and gives us the confidence that as we look forward into the new financial year with the pipeline of projects we've got, you know, we can deliver all those. I mean, the business is getting a lot bigger. You know, that creates opportunities, as Adam said, with a team that is very hungry, you know, in every case to drive that business forward.
Thank you.
Thanks, it's Andrew from Peel Hunt. Just a couple from me. Firstly, Jim, on the meat consumption trends, I just wondered if you could give us a bit of an insight as to how per capita consumption has maybe changed over the last five years. If, yeah, and maybe how it's, you know, if there's any other kind of variations within that. The next question, I'll come back to that one.
Does that make sense? You look like you're puzzled by that.
I don't have the data in my head, to be fair.
Yeah, I'll start with that one then.
Yeah, I mean, the basic view is, you know, meat consumption's actually been relatively flat. You know, it's such a fundamental point of our diet, but relatively small changes are quite a lot of volume of material. Obviously there was a lot of noise in the media about moving away from meat and moving to meat replacements. It wasn't particularly material on what the average person on the street did. You know, these are staples to our diet and foods. You know, Adam and I often talk about the food we consume changes generationally, not year by year, but the trends are upwards. You know, it's significant from an overall volume perspective.
It's probably the way to characterize it.
Thanks, Jim. Next one, just on the margins, I wondered on the outperformance this year, how much of that was contributed to the export business coming back? And then maybe the contribution from the other, you know, the verticals and efficiencies, if you can.
The export impact was very modest because it was only very, you know, right at the end of the financial year, effectively from January onwards. We got a quarter's benefit. As Adam said, whilst we're very, very pleased to get it back, it does not have quite the same impact it would have had three or four years ago. I mean, the loss margin over the last four years is probably more of a talking point than, you know, what it's contributed in the last three months.
It certainly will be helpful to us looking ahead, particularly as we've seen prices strengthening a little bit as well. You know, that's played its part, but it's been a confluence of many factors. Look at the very strong trading performance over the Christmas period, you know, the contribution from our expanded farming operations and the work that Rick and the team have done there, the operational performance with that investment in CapEx and automation, and then just that constant drive to premiumize, to add value to the meat that we're processing. Jim again called it out, more of that primary meat that we're processing being diverted internally into the business to add further value and to drive further margin improvements as well.
Great, thank you.
Lastly, on the food service, and I guess following the recent announcement of the acquisition of Blakemans, I just wondered how you expect to kind of orientate yourself to that market. Is it to kind of map, you know, the current overall, or is it more towards, obviously you talk a lot about premium. If you're moving more towards self-service, I expect that, you know, there's a risk that you could overspec relative to market, or is the market coming to you? Sort of just how do you think, how are you thinking about that at this sort of early stage? I know it's small.
Yeah, sorry, Jim, you go.
Yeah, I mean, in general, I suppose we think of it in terms of individual customers rather than the market as a whole. And that's where you then spec products appropriately.
You know, we're in the same way we view retail, we like to target the market leaders. You know, if you take the pet division, that's what we've done there. Tried to be as strategic as possible, pick off the market leaders and make products that are appropriate to them. I think that will be how we characterize that. I think the acquisition will be a learning curve as well. They're certainly more adept at this market than we may be. We will look at where they have customers and various other products within the group in terms of that. Do you remember that white space map we did? Imagine that for food service where we do a lot of chicken and food service, but we don't do so much of something else, you know.
That is how we would orientate ourselves with that as well.
I think that is where the group structure really comes in. The autonomous format that we are running it in, Chris and the team were there yesterday just doing the intros for it, but it will run in a standalone format. You know, I will have a lot of support from the center where it is required, but it is already a very successful business. We can add capital and some connections and ability that can make it more so, but it is a great business anyway.
Thank you.
I think that is one question online. We have one question online from Roland French of Penman Securities. You have spoken about the autonomous nature of Cranswick's organization setup. Can you expand on this and outline what incremental responsibilities are being pushed down to the business units?
Yeah, I do not think there has been any change to how we structured the business over the last, correctly, it is our 50th year since the business was incorporated this coming year. I think what Cranswick has been able to do is stay very true to those original ideals and that ethos. You know, Jim, Chris, Adam, and I have continued the culture and built on the culture that was developed all those years ago. I do not think there has been a particular change where we push more down. All our business units and the leadership teams within those businesses, many who have been here and in the business almost as long as some of us have, you know, they have a great degree of autonomy. They come to us with ideas rather than us just pushing those ideas down to them.
That's a model that works incredibly well and one that we want to continue to, you know, to cherish and to foster as we get bigger and as we grow the business. Blakemans will be the latest, you know, the latest iteration of that where a strong management team that's run a business very well, as Adam said, will invest, will provide them with the additional resource they need to make that business even better. We won't sort of put the Cranswick blueprint all over it on day one and change that culture because that's never how we've, never how we've done things.
Thank you there. No further questions online.
Excellent. Unless there's any further questions in the room, thank you very much for everybody. Thank you.