COMPANIES A growing taste for Ovaltine in Brazil, combined with the fast expansion of Primark stores, has boosted sales at Associated British Foods, mitigating the effects of the group’s ill-timed entry into vegetable oil futures at the top of the market earlier this year.
For the full-year ending in September, pre-tax profits fell 6 per cent to £495m on revenues that increased 12 per cent to £9.3bn. Most of the fall in pre-tax profit was caused by a £65m loss on the sale of the group’s US packaged oil business, and adjusted pre-tax profit rose 4 per cent to £655m.
