Group Strategy
Northern Foods is a focused company that has chosen to operate in five markets and seeks to drive improved shareholder returns by:
- focusing on growth markets
- working with customers that value quality and service
- operating a low-cost business model
Northern Foods makes great tasting food including Ready Meals, Sandwiches and Salads, Pizza, Biscuits and Puddings across the three areas of Chilled, Frozen and Bakery production. In each of its core markets, Northern Foods has strong leading brands or own label positions.
Through our Performance Improvement Plan management laid out a simple strategy focussed on the single key performance indicator (KPI) of creating 'above market average rate of sale products'. The strategy was built on a foundation of producing great tasting food from superior insights into recipe science and food technology, together with our long standing culinary capabilities. As a result Northern Foods is now less reliant on any single retailer and has a growing representation with discount retailers and in value products alongside our traditional premium heartland.
New opportunities
Further investment opportunities are anticipated:
- Our investment in a new facility, together with DHL, will deliver on-board catering to British Airways; this investment offers British Airways better quality food at substantially lower costs than incumbent suppliers
- We are evaluating 'state of the art' biscuits facilities, which offer good cost saving potential compared to our two existing facilities at Batley and Uttoxeter
- It is our intention, in due course, to re-open our Fenland site with a number of next generation technologies
We continue to invest in our brands and businesses and we have a range of opportunities to drive shareholder value in the coming years.
We continue to invest in talent, hiring more senior management with global FMCG experience as well as investing in our own. We have created a new role of Chief Scientist, and have redefined roles to focus on innovation through science and technology. Above all, we continue to invest in the fundamentals of what we do - 'making great tasting food that people want to buy, again and again... and again'.
