Alfesca Seafood Groups reports successful Christmas trade

Iceland seafood company Alfesca which owns Farne Salmon and Trout in Scotland and Lyons Seafood in England, has just reported a reasonably successful Christmas trading period despite the economic downturn.

Group sales totalled EUR249 million (US$322 million) for the second quarter of the company's financial year, down 3.4 percent.

Sales of fresh salmon in UK grew by an impressive 25 percent while prices increases across all shrimp categories helped to offset higher costs.

A major problem for Alfesca was the weakness of sterling which fell 25 percent against the euro in recent months and this hit overall sales in Britain by EUR8.1 million (US$10.4 million).

Alfesca chief executive officer, Xavier Govare said week sales during October and November were compensated in part by a strong performance in December, indicating that consumers delayed their spending until Christmas got closer.

Govare told shareholders that as anticipated the sever downturn of the economy in EU led to a general downturn in consumer spending, impacting on sales in the second quarter which were down by 3.4 percent.

However, he said that after adjusting for the weakening of sterling and other exceptional items sales were down by just 1.9 percent on last year.

He expects the 'challenging conditions' to impact on the company's performance over the next two quarters.