Greencore appears to have found workers who can make sandwiches as it boosted sales, despite saying previously it could find no one in the UK to work in its factory and was forced to go to Hungary to recruit its staff.
The company, which makes sandwiches for Marks & Spencer, Asda, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, also avoided getting drawn into cutting prices despite the ongoing price war between the supermarkets.
Greencore said revenues in its convenience business — where sandwiches are made and sent out to retailers across the UK and US — were up 4.9% to £320.4 million.
In the UK, like-for-like sales rose 3.6% despite bosses revealing “the overall grocery market remained challenging with negative, same-store volumes and price deflation”.
The company also said that plans for an extension to its Northampton plant have been approved and more products were being shifted to the factory.
Its factory faced criticism last year after it was discovered that the company had sent executives to Hungary to recruit new workers, with local MPs demanding the jobs be given to local people.
However, Greencore insisted it had received very little interest from locals and had been forced to look overseas.
Meanwhile, Procter & Gamble, the company behind brands including Gillette and Fairy washing-up liquid ,has said that it is planning to cut its lines from 200 to between just 70 and 80 key products.
