SUPERMARKET supplier Northern Foods warned annual profits would be £6m lower than last year following poor sales to its main client, Marks & Spencer.
The group, which employs 300 people at its Dalepak frozen foods plant at Leeming Bar, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, said profits for the year to March 31 would be £80m, against £86m last time.
Northern, which also produces Goodfella's pizzas and Fox's biscuits, said overall sales in its chilled food division last month were lower than expected, largely reflecting the company's trading with M&S, which it supplies with ready meals, pork pies, sausage rolls and other own-brand fresh food products.
M&S said on Friday that it was cutting its annual profit forecasts after being forced to make price cuts to clear Christmas stock. Food sales at M&S fell 1.7 per cent in the six weeks to January 1.
The supermarket chain accounts for about a third of Northern Foods' business, while another 40 per cent comes from Tesco, Asda and Morrisons.
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