Northern Foods' ready for the black

READY meals giant Northern Foods aims to get fit after plunging to its first half-year loss since demerging from Express Dairies six years ago.

Restructuring costs to cover the closure of two factories, 1000 job cuts - announced in September - and write-offs pushed the group £35.9m into the red for the six months to 2 October.

New chief executive Pat O'Driscoll said the company had to 'drive sales up, costs down, and raise efficiency'.

Northern has been squeezed by the supermarket price war and poor sales at Marks & Spencer, where it gets 30% of its revenue.

O'Driscoll has already cut the number of divisions at Northern from 16 to four. Stripping out the exceptional charge, pre-tax profits rose 1.5% to £33m on sales of £699.3m. Underlying sales were up 3.4%.