Birds Eye plans to launch fish fingers into Russia

Published: 16 August, 2011

NEW fish products and increased fish sales are helping to drive up turnover and profits at the former Birds Eye-Iglo group, according to the latest figures. And it now plans to launch one of its long time British favourites, the fish finger, into Russia.

The company which has recently been re-named the Iglo Group, has reported a 3.5 per cent rise in turnover, with sales of Birds Eye products up by 2.4 per cent for the first six months of this year. Its new acquisition, Findus Italy, did even better at 5.4 per cent up.

Pre-tax profits - or EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) - increased by 8.3 per cent to 159.9 million euros (about £140-million sterling).

Martin Glenn, Iglo's chief executive, said there had been a number of exciting new product developments, notably the Catch Fresh Seafood range in the UK, while poultry product sales were also showing very strong growth.

On fish fingers to Russia, he said: "Russia is experiencing strong growth, albeit from a small starting base. Currently, Moscow and St Petersburg are our areas of focus, where we are the brand leader in the fish finger category." The company is also looking at Turkey as another potential growth market.

Mr Glenn said the integration of Findus Italy had gone well and the decision to change the group name to just Iglo did not affect the Birds Eye, Iglo and Findus brand name in Italy.

He added: "While we are confident in our ability to continue innovating and migrating successful products across our markets, we still remain cautious given the current restraints on consumer spending."

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