Hilton, the UK's largest meatpacker and a FTSE 250 company, has upgraded its profit target for the year following the sale of its loss-making vegan division. The firm now anticipates a pre-tax profit of between £66m and £71m, representing a 10 per cent increase from its earlier forecast.
This revised outlook comes after Hilton offloaded its Dutch vegan and vegetarian manufacturing business, Dalco, for £5.4m in July. Dalco, which employs over 150 staff, produced various meat alternatives for private label clients. Hilton had previously noted the "underperformance of the Dalco business" and included write-downs for the arm in prior financial years.
Chief executive Mark Allen stated that the sale of Dalco is a move towards simplifying the company's portfolio. He added that "leadership in red meat" and customer relationships would continue to support medium-term growth objectives. The profit upgrade is attributed to the removal of Dalco's losses and favourable foreign currency movements, despite challenges from weak demand in its Dutch smoked salmon arm and earlier surges in raw material costs.
For the first half of the year, Hilton reported revenue of £2.3bn, a 15 per cent increase year-on-year, though pre-tax profit more than halved to £7.5m. The company declared an interim dividend of 10.1p, unchanged from the previous year. Hilton's shares saw an 8.7 per cent rise to 686p in early London trading on Thursday, bringing its year-to-date increase to 38 per cent.