McBride swings to £17.4m profit as shoppers switch to cheaper cleaning products

27 February 2024 , 10:43

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Household cleaning products firm Mcbride has seen profits rise (Image: No credit)

Shares in McBride, the company behind many supermarket own-brand cleaning products, saw its share price soar as it predicts profits for the year will beat its targets.

This comes after it made a pre-tax profit of £17.4 million for the six months to December 31. That's against losses of £20 million a year earlier.

Its sales went up by about 10% to £468 million over the year. They think that's because shoppers are choosing cheaper, own-brand items because of the pressure on living costs.

McBride has been putting up their prices to cover rises in costs, which helped them make more profit in the first half of the year. The firm, based in Manchester, makes products like Oven Pride and believes it will make somewhere between 10% and 15% more profit than it thought it would this year.

Shares shot up 21% when market trading started on Tuesday morning. The firm said: "The early part of the second half of the financial year has seen demand levels continue in line with trends seen in the first six months, and the group expects to see the favourable trends for private label markets continue throughout 2024."

Shop prices 'are yet to peak and will remain high' as inflation hits new heights

They also said that winning new contracts would mean they sell even more. The company stated that the cost of raw materials stayed "relatively stable" in the first half but warned about ongoing cost pressures.

"The rampant inflation seen in recent years is not expected to return at this stage, therefore the group expects input costs to remain stable for the coming period," McBride said. However, it mentioned that there are still cost pressures from "employment, general supplies, energy and financing costs", and "geopolitical tensions could present further inflationary and supply chain risks".

Lawrence Matheson