Brits turn to instant noodles, heeding Bank of England warning to accept they're worse off

By Steve Goldstein

Brits who have heeded the warning of a Bank of England official to accept they're poorer are turning to instant soup, a company said Thursday.

Premier Foods said its top grocery brand in its fiscal year ending April 1 was Batchelors, which produces the Super Noodles product and saw revenue growth of over 20%.

Premier Foods said its pretax profit rose 10% to GBP112.4 million as revenue rose 12% to GBP1 billion. Its trading profit, an adjusted measure, rose 11.5% to GBP157.5 million and came in ahead of company guidance. The company said its expectations remain unchanged after a "good" start to its fiscal first quarter.

Premier Foods shares climbed 6% in London trade and have gained 26% this year.

Huw Pill, the Bank of England chief economist, said he should have used different words than saying Brits should "accept they're worse off." Inflation in the U.K. is running at over 10%, the worst of any major industrialized country.

Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey said Wednesday that food producers expect food production costs to moderate. "While this may take longer than we previously thought, we should expect this to feed through to consumer food inflation over the coming year," he said.

-Steve Goldstein

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05-18-23 0902ET

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