Premier Foods PLC (PFD.LN) Friday reported a narrowed first-half pretax loss as it battled against weaker consumer spending and higher raw material costs.

The company, which serves all of the U.K.'s largest supermarkets, said it has successfully passed on the majority of price increases to its customers and has been working toward reducing costs.

For the six months to June 30, the company posted a statutory pretax loss of GBP3 million, compared with GBP58 million a year earlier. However the company's trading profit, which does not include interest, taxes or one-off costs, fell 29% to GBP67 million, with revenue also falling 2.2% to GBP1.1 billion.

Premier Foods is behind household brands including Oxo stock cubes, Hovis bread, Mr Kipling cakes and SAXA Salt. The company was embroiled in a high-profile disagreement with Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN) last year over price increases associated with its Hovis range. The company said the dispute has now been resolved.

In June, Premier said profit would be dented by a 14% jump in commodity prices--equivalent to a GBP150 million increase in costs.

-By Mario Christodoulou, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9479; Mario.christodoulou@dowjones.com

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