Hello everyone and thank you for joining the Premier Foods Q1 trading update analyst conference call. My name is Harry and I will be your operator. All lines are currently in listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for Q&A after management's prepared remarks. If you would like to enter the queue for questions, please dial star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the call over to Premier Foods CEO Alex Whitehouse to begin. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much and good morning everyone, and thanks for joining this, our quarter one trading update call. Covers the 13 weeks up to 28th of June this year. I'm j oined on the call this morning as u sual by Duncan Leggett, our CFO.
I'll start by giving a few headlines on our trading in the quarter. We'll dive into a few key areas to provide a bit more detail before, as usual, passing to you for your questions. As a reminder, by the way, we're holding our AGM at midday today which w e will be hosting our offices here in St Albans. If any shareholders would like to attend and you don't have the details, please contact Richard Godden in our Investor Relations for details of how you can attend.
On to the quarter one results then. Firstly, I'm pleased to say that we've grown our branded sales again in quarter one, and we've also increased our market share. Branded sales were up 1.2%, and that was led by a particularly strong performance in branded sweet treats, which was partially offset by some of our grocery b rands, which were held back by the unusual hot weather that we've been having.
Overall, our group sales were 0.3% h igher than last year. You may recall we're also lapping s ome very strong comps.
As a reminder, grocery branded sales w ere up 8.6% and total branded up 7.3% last year.
Market share continued to grow, both volume and value market share. You might also recall that last year we delivered some particularly strong volume share g ains as we sharpened some of our promotional price points.
Taking further volume share this quarter a gainst that strong comparative, was very encouraging. I'm also pleased to say that we're on track at this early stage of the year with our trading profit expectations for the full year unchanged. Let's take a look at some of the progress in this first quarter. Before I do, I'd just like t o remind you of our branded growth model , which is at the core of w hat we do is the reason why we've been able to deliver such c onsistent, strong performance over the last six years or so.
Firstly, we've got a portfolio of strong brands, which are leaders in their categories. They have got very high penetration.
We then listen very carefully to our consumers so that we can create and bring to market insightful new products which are based on current consumer needs and trends. We support many of our brands with emotionally engaging advertising and impactful marketing campaigns, which in fact we're currently e volving to incorporate more digital media and leveraging influencers on some of our brands.
Finally, but very importantly, we work closely with our key retail partners t o make sure that we're delivering excellent in-store execution for our brands. It is this branded growth model that underpins our five pillar growth strategy, where we continue to make strong progress in all the pillars. I'll come back to that shortly. Let's start with our Sweet Treats business first, where we've had a really great quarter here, with branded sales increasing by 11.4%. A significant part of that growth has been driven by the quality innovation p rogram that we've got in place, which is obviously a key part of our strategy. However, I should point out that the underlying core business also continues to perform v ery strongly.
In terms of some of the examples of new products, I've spoken about our Mr Kipling Signature Brownie Bites before, and they've been performing very well over the last year or so, tapping into the indulgent consumer trend. They continue to deliver further growth for t his quarter as well.
We've also launched Mr Kipling Lunchbox Slices in quarter one, which has been s pecifically designed to be less than 100 c alories so that they can be included in school lunchboxes and are also of course, non-HFSS, so not high in fat, sugar.
One of the big highlights for Sweet Treats this quarter has been the success of Birthday Cake Tarts and also Shortcake Cream Tarts. These Birthday Cake Tarts have been inspired by a trend that we've seen in the United States for birthday cake as a flavor, not just as a cake. We have replicated this with some small parts, which have done incredibly well since w e launched them a few months ago.
We've also introduced a caramel version of our leading Cadbury Mini Rolls, and that's also performed very well. That helped our Cadbury sales as well as Mr Kipling sales increased by double digits this last. Looking forward to the next quarter and beyond, we launched Mr Kipling Breakfast Bakes, which contain fiber and have got 30% less sugar than similar cakes, and that's a perfect on-the-go solution as we further expand our breakfast offering.
And m oving on to the grocery business, this quarter our grocery brands' sales w ere 2% lower than the same period a year ago as they lacked some strong comparatives on, and also some of our grocery categories were impacted by that warmer, sunnier weather we've been having here i n the U.K. compared to what was actually quite the cool, damp spring last year.
From our experience, there are a few specific categories which can be impacted by warmer or indeed colder weather, and that's things like gravy, stocks, and soups, and also desserts. Costs to an extent too. We tend to see more of an impact in the shoulder seasons. A warmer spring or autumn can be more impactful, and likewise a cold s pring or autumn has the opposite effect.
However, this is very much a short-term factor. We don't see any recourse on a medium to long-term basis. So that everyone's aware by the w e're on a journey to deseasonalize t he business and reduce the impact of weather. For example, we take this into consideration in our M&A strategy, and you can see that both The Spice Tailor and FUEL10K, which have got little or no weather sensitivity, and also as we grow our business o verseas, this will reduce the impact of s hort-term U.K. weather effects.
Now, as we look to the second half of the year for our grocery brands, we've got some particularly strong innovation t o come such as Bisto Peri- Peri Gravy, which aims to bring more younger consumers into the category, and also the continued rollout of Batchelors new microwavable ranges, which includes Pasta ‘n’ Sauce and also what we're calling Meal in Minutes.
Over to the non-branded part of the business, non-branded grocery sales were 9.3% lower in the quarter. As we continue to rightsize this part of the business, we exited a couple of contracts in custard and salt. However, we also saw consumers switching f rom our own label desserts into Ambrosia, which is obviously exactly what we want to see.
Non- branded sales in sweet treats declined by 5.5%, which was also largely due to some contract exit. While the nature of these non- branded contract handling the business can be quite lumpy on a quarter- to- quarter basis, as we look forward to the second half of the year, we expect non- branded sales for both grocery and sweet treats to start to flatten out. Now, to look more broadly at the progress we've made on our other strategic pillars, it remains very encouraging. You'll remember that one of those p illars is expanding our brands into new c ategories in the U.K. I'm pleased to say that we've c ontinued the strong momentum in those new categories w ith sales up 38% this quarter.
This further momentum was again led by Ambrosia porridge pots as it leveraged further d istribution gains in both the major multiples r etailer large stores, but also now into c onvenience stores as well. It now also has five flavor v ariants in the market too.
Perhaps more surprisingly, p orridge pots have a gain, continued to deliver significant market share gains. As a reminder and reflecting the success of Ambrosia porridge pots, we're also in the process of laying down some additional capacity for porridge pots at our manufacturing site in Devon. Another key driver of the new categories growth in the quarter was Cape Herb & Spice, which is really becoming an established presence in the market as it benefits from increased distribution from the range of what is now 14 retail SKUs.
We've also got a few food service as well. Cape Herb & Spice range is extremely versatile. It's great at bringing great flavor to l iven up a wide variety of dishes, including poultry, fish, salad, and ribs. Also across many midweek evening meals. Of course, the barbecue season will have benefited us over the last few weeks.
Growth from new categories also included the expansion of FUEL10K in some mainstream big box cereals with products such a s multigrain flakes and multigrain hoops.
These are all protein enriched in line with the rest of the FUEL10K range. It's early days for this range, but we can already see that they're bringing younger consumers back into the traditional cereals category. As we look forward to quarter two and beyond, we've got a strong set of plans for new products in new categories. This includes the launch into the chilled aisle with FUEL10K yogurt and granola pots, adding to the breadth of our breakfast offering. We're also expanding our Angel Delight ice cream range with what we call handheld twists, and they're in strawberry and vanilla, and then butterscotch and chocolate flavors. If we now move on to international. As I've said before, our focus markets are Australasia, North America, and EMEA. Within these target markets, we're currently f ocused on Mr Kipling, Sharwood's, and The Spice Tailor brands.
In the quarter, overseas sales at constant currency grew by 5%. Again, going ahead of our U.K. Core, in Australia we grew sales double digits with further good progress in cake and cooking sauces, and both our cake and cooking sauce brands continue to perform r eally well in market, driven by the continued execution of our branded growth model as we further build on our market leadership positions.
You may recall that we've advertised both Mr Kipling and The Spice Tailor on TV in Australia recently, and we continue t o do interviews, new products to market, as well as maintaining strong relationships with the retailers there.
Sales also grew very strongly in Canada as the sales of Mr Kipling continue to build, partly due to the increased d istribution that we gained last year.
In the U.S. we're updating the Mr Kipling range, accentuating the Britishness of the product range with pack designs that i nclude iconic British images such as Big Ben. I mentioned before that our research suggests that U.S. consumers believe that British cakes w ill be of higher quality.
Just as a reminder, our final strategic growth pillar is to look for inorganic opportunities where we can deliver further growth by leveraging the strength of o ur branded growth model. That was a key principle we applied when we assessed the fit of both t he Spice Tailor and FUEL10K. Both of them increased U.K. sales d ouble digits this quarter compared to a year ago.
The Spice Tailor has benefited from increased sales from the East Asian cooking sauce kits that we've launched and Chinese cooking s auce kits, which we launched during last year. These are authentic product flavors such a s Japanese teriyaki, Vietnamese curry, and classic s weet and sour sauce. To build on the cuisine extensions, we just launched into Mexican with our new Mexican kits with flavors such a s smoky barbecue fajita and chipotle and lime fajitas.
FUEL10K had an exceptionally strong quarter, and that was helped by a series of new products we've launched recently, extending t he brand into a number of different categories. All of these are, of course, high in protein, which is central p art of the brand's proposition. These new products include instant noodles, a range of instant soups and protein bowl pouches, and this very latest product is yogurt and granola pots which have gone into market just a couple of weeks a go into the chill vial. This is a pot of protein-enriched yogurt with a lid containing some of our market-leading FUEL10K granola to sprinkle on top or indeed to mix in.
As we said before, we'll continue to explore further inorganic opportunities where we b elieve that we can add value by applying our branded growth model. Of course, we've now got greater flexibility in terms of the size of opportunities we can consider, given the strength of our balance sheet. However, as we've said before w e are quite picky, and we'll update w hen we've got anything more that we can share.
In summary, we're on track and our trading profit expectations for this financial year are unchanged. It's particularly pleasing to see the r eally strong growth in sweet treats, which i s a strong testament to the value t hat we're delivering from our branded growth model , albeit partly offset in Q1 by t he hot weather impact on some of our grocery categories.
As we look forward to the rest of the year, we expect to see the strong comparative ease. Revenue build as we leverage the strength o f our branded growth model. We'll be continuing to support our brands and bringing a number o f new products to market, as well as building further the distribution of our brands A to Z.
Over the medium term, we expect to continue to make strong progress against all five of our strategic growth pillars. Thank you very much for your time. I'll now pass back to the operator. We will be very happy to take your questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please dial star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind and would like to exit the queue, please dial star followed by two. Finally, when preparing to ask your question, please ensure that your device is unmuted locally. As a reminder, that is star one to enter the queue for questions. Our first question today will be from the line of Matthew Abraham with Berenberg. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Morning all. Thanks for taking my questions. First question just is in reference to innovation. You spoke to the success of innovation in Q1. Is it possible to provide some quantification of innovation to come for the remainder of the financial year, whether that's the number of new SKUs and how that compares to the degree of new products that's been launched in the quarters have gone. Thank you.
Hi, thanks, Matthew. Obviously, innovation is really important for our model. We know that there is a very s trong correlation between long-term brand growth. Brands which have got the ability to consistently innovate, that's why we put so much focus on it, to be honest. In terms of balance- to- go, I can't quantify it, unfortunately. No. The reason for that is the w e're increasing our overall innovation output i t's not by throwing more and more SKUs into the market, because frankly there's a bit of room for them on the shelf. It's actually by increasing the overall revenue potential of the things that we do launch is all about how the marketing team down in the engine room develop ideas, working with consumers, which have got, frankly, there's a bigger potential.
When I look at our balance-t o- go this year, I just think we've got a particularly strong and exciting lineup of new products, many of which I don't really want to talk about yet because I don't want to give away commercially what we're about to do. By the time we get to the half year, I'll be able to share more of the things that we're doing. The one I pull out n ow that we're quite excited about is the FUEL10K yogurt and granola pots with the granola on top. There are lots of things coming across t he other categories as well a little bit later in the year. It's just waiting for when the retailers do their shelf relay.
Okay, understood. Thank you. Just one more next question, just in reference to margin with mix changes to impact from weather, is there a broader group margin impact from a change in that mix?
We've got slightly different margins on some of the categories, so things can m ove around a little bit. You'll note today that we're saying that we're on track to our overall trading profit for the year, so there's no major issue.
Okay, understood. I'll pass it on. Thank you.
The next question today will be from the line of Matthew Webb with Investec. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thanks very much. Good morning. The first question, can we just start o ff with that sweet treat growth number, 11.4% for the branded sweet treats? Clearly a terrific number. Would it be possible to give us a rough breakdown of that between volume, price, and mix? Also, if possible, clearly innovation was quite a big contributor as well. Is it possible to break out the contribution of innovation as well, please, just to sweet treats specifically? That's my first question. Thanks.
I don't have those specific numbers. What I can tell you is that the innovation played a very big role in that growth. The reason why it was so powerful is because the core grew as well. We got good growth out of the core business and then some really powerful MPD that came on top, which is why you get such a powerful number.
I think that was coupled with also some really great execution in store. We had a big in-store event centered around our partnership with Roald Dahl, and that led to some really big displays in store at the same time. Everything came together and worked really well in terms of volume, price, and mix. I don't have the numbers down. What I can tell you is that t here is some price in it, definitely because w e increased our prices at the back end of last year, so there's definitely a price component.
From a market share point of view. We took volume share and value share, which probably gives you some indication that it was driven by some of each.
Got it. Maybe a bigger picture question a bout the cake category. I guess the perception out there is that it's on the wrong end of some structural changes in consumption. It was a very strong point for you in the period, and I think you mentioned that the category in the period as well. What do you think the medium- term prospects are for the cake category as a whole and for you within it?
We've always found that the cake category is one of our most elastic categories. By that I mean it's very sensitive to when we get it right, so if we get the innovation right. We get the execution in store right, we see disproportionate gains compared to some of our other categories. I think the reason for that is s ome of our products are tied t o specific meal occasions. I'm only going to use a pasta sauce if I'm having pasta for dinner. If I'm having something else, I don't eat it. Cake is something that you can eat no matter what you're having for dinner. People tend to put them on the countertop at home, and they get kind of hoovered up by the family as they go past. I think when we get it right on cake, we see disproportionately strong performance, which I think is exactly what you've seen here in Q1. In terms of long term outlook, we're pretty positive on it, to be honest.
Got it. Thank you. The final question, the international figure, the growth of 5% I guess looks maybe a little bit disappointing compared to some of the rates you've posted in the past. Is that a fair reflection of the u nderlying growth in the period or were there any signings in there? I know you said that Australia grew double digits, so presumably something else was going the wrong way. What was going on there?
Yeah, sure. I mean, we're still really positive o n the international growth prospects, we would expect to be in double-digit growth over the full year, although that does feel a little more back-end weighted for us. In quarter one, we had some great performance in Australia. We had really strong growth on both of our key categories, cake and also Indian cooking sauces. We took really strong market share gains as well, actually on both those categories. Canada continues its kind of strong building in performance.
Where we saw some stuff going in t he opposite direction is where we just got, frankly, lumpiness in the supply chain. Because the business is still actually not that big. Consequently, when you're shipping stuff over long distances, the difference between when a container ships and how much stocks i n the market can create a bit t here is a concertina effect. We ship a load of stock and give them a stocking market, then there's a bit of a pause while it gets consumed, and then we ship some more. I think that's some of what we saw in the quarter in some markets.
I think it's also fair. We've had to change our distributor in the Middle East. We did have a bit of a period of time where we've not really sold anything in the Middle East while we're exiting one distributor and moving to another. These are temporary effects, which is why we still expect to be double digit for the full year.
Got it. That's really fair. Thanks very much indeed.
The next question today will be from the line of Karine Elias with Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Thank you for the presentation and thanks for taking my question. Obviously your bond is due in October 2026. Just wondering whether you've got any particular plans to address those and whether the bond market will still be your favorite cloud for those. Thank you.
Yeah, morning, Karine. Thanks for the question. I think, absolutely right from this time all the way through October 2026. I think as we said at the year end we'll be looking to need them to rebalance it probably over the next nine or 12 months or so. That very much remains the plan. We continue to monitor the market. I think the bond market has typically worked pretty well for us, we'll continue to monitor the market, and it's a bit of a different position than it was when we put the current bond in place at 3.5%. We'll keep an eye on things and probably be able to do something over the next nine or 12 months.
Thank you.
The next question today will be from the line of Andrew Ford with Peel Hunt. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Morning all. Thank you for taking my questions. A couple from me, if I can, just on the grocery number and the negative number there, can you give a bit more detail on the performance, I guess how some of the less seasonally relevant products perform versus the ones that you called out in terms of gravy and soups, et cetera, that you'd expect to be a bit weaker given the warm weather, maybe as well. You've obviously become less seasonally dependent as you've grown through your brand building. I wondered how much further you can go given the current portfolio you have or if it would require more of a, I guess a widening of the categories, reliant on acquisitions or is there product changes you can make in order to improve that? I'll start with that one and I've got one more if I can.
Good morning, Andrew. Within grocery, as I say. There are some categories which are particularly sensitive to weather. This quarter it was for the worst, but some quarters it's for the better. Right? There would be obvious things like gravy, stocks, and stuffing because those categories, in what we call flavors and seasonings, if you've got the barbecue out and you're having salads, you're not having a roast dinner. There's an obvious impact there.
You've got, you know, things. That growth has continued to march on. You know, irrespective of that. We have really strong growth from The Spice Tailor. We have really strong growth from FUEL10K. Breakfast was really strong because obviously that's not weather sensitive. Things like granola are not weather sensitive at all. Nissin performed really well, with further double-digit growth. There were a number o f things which were going in the right direction, which are the things, as you would expect, are not weather sensitive.
Yes, we are significantly less seasonal and weather sensitive than we used to be. That's for a number of reasons, I think. Firstly, we've got a more robust business model than we would have had six or seven years ago. You can see that in the strong growth from the Cape Herb & Spice business. Secondly, the new category entries we've made have tended to be either seasonally neutral or actually seasonally inverse. I think about things like Cape Herb & Spice, which delivered more than 50% growth in the quarter as people sprinkled it on stuff they were putting on the barbecue, and then the brands, as you pointed out, the brands we bought.
We sort of take this deseasonalization c oncept into account on all those things, and over time we will further deseasonalizing the business at a structural level. I think we've made an awful lot of progress over the last five or six years, which is why we're still looking at positive branded growth despite the really hot weather that we've just had. I cast forward over the next three, five years; if we keep doing the same, it'll just make us even more robust. That's very much the plan. I should also ask, by the way, of course, I remember when the weather's cold. It works for us that way.
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Just one more, just on the trading up into brands. I know you made a comment there. Is there? I think it was more in the sweet treats side, but are there any other notable kind of moves into that, from non-branded into branded that you're seeing, anything worth calling out with that trend?
Yeah, I'd pull out desserts as well, where we're seeing sales moving from non-branded desserts into Ambrosia. That's been a trend that's been going o n for probably 18 months or so now and have not got.
Great. Thank you very much. That's all from me.
That possibly helps, actually, by the way, by the Ambrosia Deluxe launch. Remember, we've got Ambrosia Deluxe, we t alked about at the full year, which has done incredibly well and continues to do so, I think that just drags people up in general.
Thank you. As a quick reminder, if you would like to ask any further questions, please dial star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. The next question will be from the line of Clive Black with Shore Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you, and thank you for taking the question. Gentlemen, one narrow one to start off with. Would it be fair to say that y our trading experiences in Ireland mirror those of the U.K., given you've got a much broader assortment in that market and across the Atlantic. Maybe just give us some color how things are progressing in Canada, which has I think a little bit more, race p rofile as you result, and then in a much more, much broader base that's building on Matthew's question. First of all, the U.K. government has issued updated news on its own food strategy, particularly around HFSS foods. We've seen a lot or heard a lot of noise about GLP-1s and appetite suppressant drugs in the market, more so stateside than here. Interestingly, recent updates from Domino's or Greggs have contained some of that story. There's a certain irony in your sweet treats blowing the mindset in Q1, but are you seeing and is your business strategy evolving around appetite suppressant drugs as well to the extent that they're now starting to more noticeably feature in the market, in the U.K. market. Thank you.
Yeah, quite a bit unpacked there. Ireland, yes, there's a similar, almost certainly a s imilar impact happening in Ireland and the U.K. from a weather point of view. It's not that big for us, to be fair, relative populations. Yeah, let's talk about North America for a bit though. Yes, in Canada. We are doing really well in Canada, and I think some of this is w e've been there for longer than we've been in after Australia. There's a little bit of a, t he way we kind of like to t hink about it is that these markets a re following the pattern.
Obviously, we are delighted with where we are in Australia, where we've got leadership in the first two categories, and we start to move our elbows out now and expand into additional categories. Fully established business team on the ground, you know, running the full brand building model. That's the blueprint. We do need to bear in mind, of course, that it's quite a simple market because it's got two key r etailers, and then, you know, next cab off the rank was really Canada. We have been there a little while n ow we really have started to pick up momentum, picked up some big c hunks of distribution, particularly in Walmart last year, have had really good effects for Mr Kipling in Canada following that initial test. If you remember that fallback, that's where we first tested. The retail structure is not overly complex. It's not dissimilar in terms of for t he U.K. really, where you've got a handful of decent-sized retailers. Not like Australia, but also very m uch not like either. In the States we're obviously further behind that. I think in the States and in Europe we're still in that very early stage where we're just putting our foot in the water. It's a complicated, if not very complicated, retail environment which I'm sure you're v ery well aware of, there are s ome interesting things happening in the U.S. Sharwood's has been there a little while. It's in limited distribution, but where it is, it's really motoring forward. We're going to be looking at how we can expand that further.
Early days with The Spice Tailor. As you know, we've got one retailer where we're testing that seems to do p retty well, and we're about to I won't go as far as to s ay relaunch, but we're just about to update the Mr Kipling with that Britishness positioning t o launch apple pies, which have tested really well because, interestingly, you might think pricey. The U.S. has got, you know, is k nown for its apple pies, but actually they're all quite big and individual s ix apple pies in a box is something they don't really seem to have. That seems to have been something t hat retailers are quite liking the look of. We will see, but that's sort of the game plan.
Meanwhile, sorry.
I was just going t hat could be a good segue into the broader GLP-1 appetite suppressant angle. Big apple pies versus yours.
Quite. We are not seeing any impact at this point. We're monitoring it really carefully. The work we've done, that for the majority of our business, the U.K. grocery business, we're selling things which you use to put together an entire meal. If you've got a family, you k now, you've got a family of four who's making a m aking pasta or they're making something that needs an OXO cube, you're not going t o use 2/3 of the jar or 3/4 of the jar because you know somebody one, and you're not going to use 3/4 of an OXO cube.
We don't think, because of the n ature of a lot of our brands. That it's going to make that much difference. The irony is you say you're three-three , where in principle, you could imagine there are some people who are going to stop eating cakes. They're not seeing it. I suspect some of it might be that t here’s not enough people in the U.K. that want it to make as much of a difference. I think as well, you look at the usage habit of Kipling cake, it's not. You don't buy one and eat it o n the go, like you might with a, you know, a confection bar. Yeah, it's part of the weekly shop. It goes home, it sits on the k itchen countertop, and different family members eat them, you know, as they come and go through the kitchen, make a cup of tea.
We think, therefore, that will see the consumption from the rest of the family. As I say, we can't see a ny impact, I'm not sure we're going to, to be honest.
Very interesting. Just very quickly, concept of time, the U.K. government's evolving rhetoric on diet and health. Is that a continuum for you or something new that we've seen in the last week?
It feels like a continuum, to be honest. I think we've been quite supportive of the health agenda. We see it as both a moral responsibility to help nudge people in the right direction with their eating habits, but also as a commercial opportunity because we know a lot of people are trying to be a little healthier. Over the last more than six years now, probably more like eight years or so, we've been reducing fat, salt, and sugar in our products and making healthier options so they are available if people want them, and we'll continue to do that.
Yeah, I really appreciate the way you embrace the question. Thank you very much.
I think, sorry, I'd ask. We still need to be aware that we make healthy options of things. Sometimes people buy the original version, but it's there if people want it.
Yeah, absolutely the right way. Thank you.
The next question today will be from the line of Damian McNeela with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi. Morning everybody. Thanks for taking the questions. A few quick ones for me, I think hopefully. Just in terms of the market share gains that you've made in the period, are you able to sort of quantify the size of those gains that you've made and where you've taken that share from? I'm assuming quite a bit of it's from private label, but whether you could just confirm that, please. Secondly, on breakfast you've indicated that you're doing an increasing amount to focus on that eating occasion. I'm just wondering whether you could sort of give us an indication of how much of your sales are generated from breakfast at the minute.
Finally, on marketing spend, I know you don't sort of provide the exact numbers, but I was wondering if you could provide us with some color on marketing spend this year and just interested in some of the influences that you are using as well, please. Thank you.
Hi . Market share gains, we've not shared the exact number on that, but you could probably say it's double digit on both volume and value share gains, double- digit basis points. Just to be clear. I often get a sked where does the share come from? It's an interesting one because we don't really look at it like that. We gain market share almost by the consequence of growing faster than the market. What we intend to do is d rive growth for the c ategories, particularly given we tend to have leadership positions in most of our categories. We will go out of our way to drive growth for us and for the retailer and grow the category. The fact that we do that, I guess better than the rest of the category, means that there's a mathematical share gain, which is quite different from us going out and actually targeting where that share is going to come from. It's sort of a slightly different approach.
As I said earlier, we have go t categories where we are taking consumers from private label into brand, and that includes sweet treats and it includes dessert. Does that answer that question?
Yeah, that's perfect. Thank you very much, Alex.
Breakfast is still relatively small for us. Obviously, we offered to step into it with the Ambrosia porridge pots, which continued to d o incredibly well and has grown by a huge double-digit number again this quarter. Since then you bought FUEL10K, which has got a very big proportion of its sales in breakfast. We've just expanded that with the yogurt and granola pots, which we expect largely to be eaten at breakfast or morning time. Also, the FUEL10K big box, big box cereals, which are quite interesting in that we're seeing that bringing younger consumers back into that big box central part of the cereal category.
It is still early days for us but very double-digit growth, and I'm really pleased with the trajectory that we've got on that. Finally, on your marketing spend question, look, the direction of travel here we've been really clear on is that we are increasing our overall marketing spend over t ime, ahead of inflation, with the intent to scale up how much we're spending behind our brands. We've been doing this for a number of years, at least the last six years, we plan to spend more this year than we spent last year. That's part of that journey. We feel as though we're probably. Two thirds of the way along the road from where we were versus where w e want to be, if that's any help.
Yes, that's great. Thanks, Alex. Can you name drop any influencers that you've been using, please?
I couldn't, no. That's mainly because I am not that close to it. There are plenty of people in t he team who are.
Okay. Perhaps just once I've got the mic, just quickly on breakfast. Do you think the portfolio of brands that you've got is sufficient to get you to where you want to be in breakfast, or do you think there are still gaps in that part of the portfolio?
I think with the brands we've got, we cover a lot of bases. We can do creaminess with Ambrosia, which is really helpful on things like p orridge, and I think protein enriched from FUEL10K. FUEL10K also works with a lot of younger consumers, which is where the growth is and therefore quite exciting. We're pretty pleased with what we've g ot to be honest.
Okay, brilliant. Thank you very much.
Thanks.
Thank you. We have no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to hand the call back to Alex Whitehouse for some closing remarks.
Thanks for dialing in everybody this morning. As you can tell, I think we're pretty confident about the full year outlook. We're pleased with the overall, I guess, progress across the five pillars of the growth strategy. Sweet Treats is in a particularly strong position, but obviously in the short term grocery being weather affected. Obviously, we know that that's a temporary thing, so it doesn't really knock us off track for the rest of the year or where we're heading strategically. As you know, we've got great ambition to scale up Premier Foods using that branded growth model and using the five pillar growth strategy. Thank you very much.
This concludes the Premier Foods Q1 trading update analyst conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.