Uniq plc Interim Management Statement April 2008

Uniq, the European convenience food group, today announces the following update.

UK Desserts review

We have now completed the review of our desserts business. In order to recover from the current loss-making position and generate profitable growth for the long term we have concluded we need to reduce our production capacity and reorganise our business. We intend to achieve this by focusing our desserts business on the Evercreech and Minsterley sites and will today start a consultation process with employees about the potential closure of the Paignton site and the transfer of volumes to Minsterley.

The success of the turnaround of Minsterley over the past two years has created an increasingly efficient site with the capacity to accommodate growth. The transfer of our chocolate desserts to Minsterley will further enhance the capabilities of the site.

Subject to the process of consultation, we anticipate the reorganisation will take approximately 18 months to implement and cost around £20 million in capital and one-off costs.  This will reduce our fixed cost base by approximately £11 million per annum with the saving building from the start of 2009. We will review the overall carrying value of our desserts asset base in the light of these changed circumstances. Any increase or decrease in carrying value will be reflected in our results for the half year to 30 June 2008 to be announced in July 2008.

M&S supplier review

The M&S supplier review has continued to progress. We have reached agreement on terms in desserts and M&S have confirmed their long term commitment to both Evercreech and Minsterley. We expect a net increase of desserts business as a result of this review.

We have also reached agreement on terms with M&S in fish and will take on additional business with discussions continuing about further opportunities. Northampton Food to Go business is expected to continue to deliver the high level of growth achieved in recent years.

Trading update

Across the Group sales for the first 3 months of 2008 were 0.8%* up on the same period in 2007, in line with the Board’s expectations and the trend for the second half of 2007 as indicated in our preliminary results announcement on 26 March 2008.

UK sales grew by 0.6% with continuing growth in Northampton and Pinneys being offset by volume losses, previously reported, in desserts in 2007. With the desserts review complete and the negotiations with M&S nearing completion our outlook for the UK is becoming clearer. We have suffered a lag in inflation recovery so far in 2008 and are working hard to offset continuing raw material price inflation through a combination of further price recovery and new business gains. These new business gains and the benefit of reduced desserts overheads will significantly improve the UK performance in 2009.

Northern Europe has had an encouraging start to the year with sales up 3.0%, modestly ahead of our expectations. Growth has come mostly from Poland and our sandwich business and the rate of decline in Germany has slowed significantly. Polish growth has been delivered without the level of inefficiency experienced in the second half of 2007 and the new Netherlands management team is implementing a recovery plan which addresses the issues revealed in the second half of 2007.

As stated on 26 March 2008, the start to the year in France has been impacted by a decline in market volumes, resulting in sales 1.3% down on the same period last year, while our market share has remained stable. We have successfully concluded this year's trade negotiations and have a number of new product launches scheduled for the second quarter. We remain confident of achieving progress in both sales and profit for the year.

The financial position of the Group remains stable with quarterly cash outflow in line with expectations.

*where changes are given on prior year they are for the comparable period last year on a constant currency basis.  The increase in Group sales including currency movements was 7.9%.