G’s Growers has invested almost £5 million in new equipment in the past year as it looks to “safeguard supply and reduce production costs”.

The vegetable and salad producer organisation, which supplies its product through

G’s Marketing, saw its 2008-09 pre-tax profit turn into a small loss following an additional £1.6m investment.

In its accounts submitted to Companies House last week, the directors said it made investments of £3.1m in the year to 2009 and a further £4.7m in 2010 to “safeguard supply, improve product quality and reduce production costs”. This resulted in a £17,298 pre-tax loss for the year from 3 May 2009 to 1 May 2010.

Peter Sargeant, md of G’s grower Cambes Farms, told FPJ conditions have been challenging since the last financial year: “It has been a tough year with the weather conditions. It was a good start to the summer with good demand but this did not come through in terms of sales. There’s a lot of theories that the World Cup has not helped as takeaway sales increased 43 per cent while salad sales were static.

“Given the political backdrop, I think it will be a challenging season again,” he continued. “People will be careful what they spend and we will see how that affects our sales. There will be a lot of emphasis on promotions and people will have to be careful with some of the premium lines.”

Turnover increased from £32.8m in the period 4 May 2008 to 2 May 2009 to £38.9m the following year. Cost of sales rose from £32.8m in 2008-09 to £38.9m in 2009-10.