Losses narrowed at one of Scotland’s leading vegetable growers and processors – Kettle Produce – last year.
The latest accounts for the Fife-headquartered company, which handles more than 12,000 acres of vegetable crops from across Scotland and elsewhere, show a pre-tax loss of £42,000 for the year to May 29, 2021.
This compares with a pre-tax loss of £1.92 million the year before.
The accounts, filed with Companies House, show a slight decrease in turnover to £149.99m, from £152.17m the year before.
The bulk of sales – £149.34m – were in the UK, while sales to Europe decreased by 47% to £658,000, from £1.24m previously.
In her report accompanying the accounts, Kettle Produce company secretary and finance director Liz Waugh said the trading landscape during the year was dominated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Our sales profile was determined by consumer demand with more home cooking during period of lockdown but less demand for prepared veg and ready meals,” said Ms Waugh.
“Our sites providing the former experienced strong sales volumes but our prepared and business-to-business sites experienced a significant disruption.”
She said a partial closure of one of the company’s Scottish sites in September 2020 due to Covid-19 had a material impact on trading results due to a slow recovery to getting the site back to full production.
“In addition, the business had to invest significant amounts in structural and operational changes to enable it to have appropriate social distancing and hygiene standards in place,” added Ms Waugh.
“These amended working practices help protect the safety and well-being of our employees but continue to bring financial and operational challenges.”
The accounts reveal the company employed an average of 1,319 members of staff in the year – this is down from 1,362 the year before.
They also reveal the highest paid un-named director took home a pay cheque of £208,000 – down from £213,000 previously.
Looking forward, Ms Waugh said: “Crop availability and quality has been favourable but inflationary pressures and shortages of suitable labour are likely to materially impact the new financial year.”
Kettle operates two sites in Fife – one at its base at Balmalcolm Farm, Cupar, and another two miles away at Orkie – and one at Barrowcliffes, near Nottingham. It also operates a Spanish division.
The company grows a range of vegetables including carrot, parsnip, broccoli, cauliflower, sprouts and spring greens. It also produces prepared vegetable products.