Sweet news from Associated British Foods - sugar production is rising and shoppers on a budget still can't get enough of Primark.
ABF, majority owned by the billionaire Weston family, said today that sugar production is up from one million tonnes to 1.3 million tonnes year-on-year, thanks to a mild winter that increased the sugar content of beets.
That should be good news for farmers and consumers, reckons ABF finance director John Bason.
Last year, a very cold winter saw many farmers' crops being ruined by the frozen ground. Primark had a "cracking" Christmas, says Bason. In the first half of ABF's financial year, Primark sales are up 15%, with like-for-like sales up 2%. That's a creditable performance on a struggling high street.
But the City's immediate view was that Primark's growth may be slowing. Martin Deboo at Investec said: "With positive sentiment on the shares as strong as it has been, we expect any whiff of a slowdown to impact sentiment a bit."
The shares slipped 22p to 1197p.
