Festive expansion boosts Northern Foods

AN EXPANDED range of Christmas puddings and strong sales of sandwiches and salads helped Northern Foods post solid festive trading figures.

The growing demand for chilled foods and roaring sales of Christmas lines such as celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal's Hidden Orange Christmas pudding and turkey and cranberry sandwiches meant Northern increased sales 2.3 per cent in the final quarter of 2010.

Sales at its chilled division were up 9.7 per cent in the quarter, while new lines added to its own-label Christmas pudding range helped its bakery department post a 5 per cent like-for-like sales increase.

The group, which makes Fox's biscuits, said it had yet to receive a takeover offer from Harry Ramsden's owner Ranjit Singh Boparan to rival its proposed merger with sandwich maker Greencore.

Northern has opened its books to Boparan but said there was no certainty that he would make a bid before the 21 January deadline imposed by the Takeover Panel.