Grower and packer S&A Group has increased sales and profits in the past year, and has put the issue of water at the top of its agenda for the coming 12 months.
S&A Group Holdings reported turnover of £50.3 million in 2011, figures from Companies House show, up from £49.1m the year before. Pre-tax profits were up 20 per cent to £1.6m, from £1.3m in 2010.
Directors said in the report that they believe S&A is well positioned with a number of strengths that make it resilient in the ongoing period of economic downturn.
Most notably, they highlighted the fact that the soft-fruit market is continuing to show good signs of further growth.
S&A finance director Trevor Gregory told FPJ: “Turnover stayed relatively static but we are seeing margins being slightly enhanced by our work to try to reduce costs.
“For example, we have moved over to table-top strawberry production and we have a high level of returners harvesting so that more than 50 per cent of our pickers have done the job before and we get better productivity.”
Gregory also explained the role that sweetcorn played in the group’s fortunes. “Last year was not a very happy year with sweetcorn for us. We were growing our own and importing but we have exited that business completely now.”
As a group, S&A is looking ahead to ensure it is well placed to face future challenges that might affect its margins.
Gregory said: “The use and availability of water for growers is of increasing concern and restrictions on abstraction for the purposes of trickle irrigation used by soft-fruit growers is an imminent prospect.
“The company, and its fellow subsidiaries, are planning to create winter water-storage facilities in the next few years in order to minimise both the risk to availability and the cost risk associated with future use of water.”
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