Advertising campaign paying off for Premier

The debt-laden company said a focus on marketing drove branded sales 2.2 per cent higher to £275m during the first three months of the year.

Ambrosia adverts returned to TV screens for the first time in more than a decade, while Premier also ran ad campaigns for Mr Kipling cakes, Oxo stock cubes and Sharwood’s Asian cooking range.

That helped offset a 5 per cent fall in non-branded sales to £52m, lifting total sales 1 per cent higher to £327m during the quart- er.

Bread sales increased 0.8 per cent during the quarter, with Hovis bread maintaining its share in a “highly competitive” market. Premier plans to revamp Hovis’ packaging by the summer.

But the St Albans-based company is also braced for £75m of lost bread sales, after opting not to renew a low-margin contract, thought to be with the Co-operative supermarket chain.

The group continues to cut costs and hopes to save another £20m in 2013, including through previously announced plans to axe 900 jobs by closing two bakery sites at Greenford and Birmingham.

Premier said its marketing plans are unchanged for 2013 after it ploughed almost £40m into an advertising drive last year.

Chief executive Gavin Darby, who recently took over from former boss Michael Clarke earlier this year, said the branded growth showed that the company’s investment in marketing and improving customer collaboration was paying off.