Lynn’s Country Foods, the Northern Ireland company behind the Finnebrogue “naked” range of bacon and sausages, has reported a jump in turnover to £159.2 million in its latest annual report.
The Co. Down based company, whose naked range is nitrite-free, reported a 9.6% increase in turnover for the 12 months ending February 2024 – up from £145.3 million a year earlier.
Pre-tax profits declared by the company, that began as a family farm, also soared to £7.3 million in the year to February 2024, compared to a corresponding figure of £2.7 million for 2023.
Its net assets also grew to £80.7 million – up from its 2023 position of £75.5 million.
Naked bacon
Lynn’s Country Foods, was established by the late Denis Lynn, who began his career “selling pizzas and pies out of a little white van”.
He bought the 600 acre Finnebrogue estate in 1991 in Co. Down and became a beef farmer and deer farmer in the 1990s and quickly grew to become a favourite supplier of Michelin star restaurants, supermarkets and celebrity chefs.
Lynn’s passion for “making food better” drove a strong commitment to research and development and led to a number of major innovations – including the naked range of products, which is free from nitrites.
Finnebrogue’s naked smoked bacon products use ground-breaking, clean-smoke technology.
Lynn, who was also very well known for his charity work – particularly in southern Malawi and Fareshare, which redistributes surplus food – died in May 2021 following a quad bike accident on his Finnebrogue estate.
His widow Christine and his daughters, Tara, Ciara, Clare and Kerry, continue to play a key role in the family business.
The Co. Down business according to the latest set of accounts has grown its workforce to 758 people.
Annual report
The latest annual report highlights that according to the directors of Lynn’s Country Foods, both the “level of business and year end financial position of the company were considered satisfactory”.
The profit for year after taxation was more than £5.2 million and included exceptional items of £976,430 in respect of “a loss on write off receivables”.
Looking ahead the company’s directors believe that “the current level of activity will be maintained for the forseeable future”.
But they have also cautioned that events such as ongoing conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, in Gaza and shipping disruption in the Red Sea, Covid-19 and Brexit have “presented challenges and uncertainties” particularly in relation to its supply chain, operations and workforce.
“The company continues to closely monitor these situations and closely tracks retail data in categories in which it operates to identify and manage potentially disruptive events should they arise,” they added.
