Premier Foods (LON:PFD) – a rebuke

Premier Foods has let shareholders down with its financial reporting. It’s a good job that it hasn’t done the same with its trading performance. 

You would certainly have missed what Chairman Colin Day stated at Wednesday’s AGM.

There was no RNS report of what he informed shareholders about the company’s current trading. What is more it should have been put out as a notice on its own.

Totally nil points to Headland, the financial public relations company handling this foods group.

And as for the Company Secretary Simon Rose, well he did publish the AGM votes and tucked away there was a mini-quote, but it merely noted the statement and did not even mention the Chairman’s name.

Both Headland, the PR outfit, Richard Godden, the Director of Investor Relations & Treasury, and the Company Secretary need rebuking – particularly so because shareholders were unable to attend the meeting, so such reporting is one of the few legitimate times in any corporate year for gaining shareholder attention.

However, I now repeat what that mini-statement said:

“Regarding current trading, July was a particularly strong month exhibiting a similar sales pattern to that of Q1. We continue to expect this to be a transitionary quarter, with trading normalising as consumers gradually return to eating out of the home. Our recently upgraded expectations for FY20/21 remain unchanged.“

It is of paramount importance that shareholders are informed of just how their company is faring, especially in these Covid-19 days of crisis.

All news, good or bad, has to be fed out into the media so that investors are able to form their opinions.

For a near-£750m market capitalised group it is imperative that such news be publicised.

So yes, the IR Director, the PR and the Company Secretary should take this on board. And what is more the Company Chairman Colin Day should have signed off on his own Statement, so he too is remiss.

However, I end on a good note – those few words about current trading give me more confidence about the group than I did when I profiled its shares at the end of June at 67.5p. Now at 86.5p, they still appear headed for the century.