Uniq Pre-close update

BALANCE SHEET STRENGTHENED – FOCUSED ON LONG-TERM RECOVERY

Uniq, the European chilled convenience food group today gives the following update on trading ahead of its announcement of the results for the nine month period ending 31 December 2006 on Monday 26 March 2007.

	Sales 13 weeks to 31 December 2006+ £'m	Change on prior year*	Sales 9 months to 31 December 2006+ £'m	Change on prior year*
UK	90.1	6.1%	258.0	5.1%
Northern Europe	55.8	0.9%	160.0	2.1%
France	43.3	(7.7%)	123.2	(5.5%)
Continuing business	189.2	1.1%	541.2	1.6%
Discontinued business	24.1		78.4
Group	213.3		619.6
+Preliminary unaudited figures
*Stated at constant exchange rate

Geoff Eaton, Chief Executive, commented "Our trading performance continues to reflect the different stages of recovery and the considerable change management in progress in each of our three divisions. The UK is leading the way with good momentum in sales, quality and service. However, there is still a considerable amount of work to do to deliver our long-term financial goals."

UK

The initial priority in our recovery plan for the UK was to improve customer service and quality. The 6.1% increase in sales in the last three months of 2006, compared with the same period last year, demonstrates that we have made significant progress in this regard. The level of expenditure required to achieve this result was higher than anticipated, leading to lower than expected margins. The next stage of our recovery plan is focused on improving margin management to secure the margins we believe these businesses are capable of delivering in the long-term.

The recovery at Minsterley is in line with the revised plan implemented in September 2006.


Northern Europe

Sales grew by 0.9% overall in the three months to 31 December compared with the prior year, with encouraging growth in Poland and the Netherlands being offset by weakness in Germany. Since the period end, management has announced the next phase of its recovery plan, involving:

• the closure of Bremerhaven;
• transferring the balance of fish production to Poland;
• consolidating potato salad production in the Netherlands;
• decentralisation in Germany to site-based business units; and
• further reduction in employment costs

France

Marie Convenience has been successfully separated from St Hubert and the social plan is progressing, with cost reductions expected to commence during the first six months of 2007. Sales in the final three months of 2006 declined by 7.7% compared with the previous year. However, the actions already taken by the new management to relaunch the Marie brand and address the decline in the frozen business are proceeding as planned in a competitive frozen market.

Discontinued Businesses

Discontinued businesses continued to trade well in the period.

For further information:

UNIQ plc
Geoff Eaton	Chief Executive	01753 276011
Martin Beer	Finance Director
Gainsborough
Julian Walker		020 7190 1705