Hilton chief exec beefs up stake

Hilton Food Group's chief executive, Robert Watson, has upped his stake in the meatpacker with the purchase of £320,000 worth of shares.

He bought 200,000 at 161p a time and now has nearly 3.2m, which is about 4.5% of the company.

He was joined by non-executive director Sir David Naish, who took 10,000 shares, and his wife Lady Naish, who took 5,000. They paid 162p a time and now have 25,000 shares and 10,000 shares respectively.

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Huntingdon-based Hilton, which supplies the supermarket Tesco as well as others in mainland Europe, lat last month upped its dividend as it reported an 11.6% rise in full-year pre-tax profit.

The group is recommending a final dividend of 5.74p per share. Together with the interim dividend of 2.4p paid in December 2008, this makes a total dividend for the year of 8.14p, a 10% increase.

Pre-tax profit rose to £17.3m in the year ended 31 December compared with £15.5m last time as turnover rose by over 26% to £729.5m thanks to volume growth in all the territories in which it operates.

"Whilst our business will not be immune to the worsening economic climate, the board expects, with a strong business model, to achieve further progress in 2009," said non-executive chairman Gordon Summerfield.

Trading in the early part of 2009 has been in line with expectations.

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