Northern Foods' Andy Booker stocks up

Northern Foods' new chief financial officer Andy Booker has taken his first helping of shares in the Goodfella's pizza maker, spending more than £100,000.

Booker, whose move to the Leeds-based group was announced last month, bought 200,000 shares at 53.7p a time. He was previously European finance director at Japan Tobacco International, the owner of UK cigarette maker Gallaher

His purchase comes soon after Northern Foods said currency moves and pension credit changes knocked 16% off pre-tax profits in the first half.

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Profit before tax for the 26 weeks ended 27 September fell to £16.9m from £20.1m a year earlier despite a 6.8% increase in revenue to £468.6m. Revenue excluding the impact of currency translation and acquisitions rose 3.8%.

"We remain confident of maintaining good progress throughout the balance of our financial year, whilst sharing the widely publicised uncertainty around consumer spending over the Christmas period," said chief executive Stefan Barden.

The firm said it hiked prices to fully recover a £25m increase in commodity costs during the period.

Shares in Northern Foods are down by nearly 50% on the year. They took a sharp downward turn in September, in line with the turmoil that has plagued markets generally.

Aside from Goodfella's pizza, Northern Foods is behind Fox's biscuits, Grassington's vegetarian snacks and Holland's pies.

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