Total turnover for the Christian Salvesen group grew by 17.8 per cent on the same period last year to £411.2million, but underlying pre-tax profits fell by 17.4 per cent to £17.1m. However, the UK market has performed well, outstripping the company's European-wide performance. 'Our food and consumer operations across Europe are proving highly resilient and our UK industrial business continues to generate good margins,' said Edward Roderick, chief executive of Christian Salvesen. 'In the food and consumer division UK turnover was 5.2 per cent lower but we succeeded in raising the margin to 8.6 per cent despite constant downward pressure on volumes, particularly for cold storage.

'Most importantly, we have been appointed as Tesco's supply chain partner in the south of England for their strategic project to streamline the pre-consolidation and delivery of frozen food. Critical factors in the appointment were our sector knowledge, expertise in shared-use operations and advanced ICT systems. We are investing £10 million over two years in a new 23,000-pallet site in Lincolnshire, and will be well placed to win more business in this developing market as other retailers follow Tesco's lead.

'Building on established partnerships with Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser, we have mounted a campaign to develop our consumer business.'

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