The country’s enduring fondness for potatoes in all shapes and sizes contributed to a sales boom at McCain Foods to almost GBP700m in its most recent fiscal year. With its UK headquarters located in North Yorkshire, the Canadian behemoth’s revenue increased to GBP712.5m for the year ending June 30, 2023, from GBP596.3m.

Yahoo!finance reports that the company’s pre-tax profits increased from GBP72.5m to GBP77.5m during the same period, based on recently filed papers with Companies House.

“The business had to manage multiple challenges across the supply chain impacting costs and supply. Farmers faced weather-related challenges throughout the season due to summer drought as well as increased pressure from rising input costs including fuel and fertilizers. Despite this, sales growth was positive across both sectors and the business continued to support the long-term sustainability of agriculture through higher contract pricing in line with indexation and supplementing high energy costs for our storage growers. The company continued to make significant investments throughout the year in both capital, including the renewal of the Scarborough facility, and the brand, including media advertising. The directors are satisfied with the financial position of the company at the end of the year,” a statement signed off by the board said.

During the year a dividend of GBP8m was paid out, down from GBP27m in the prior year.

“As a brand leader, the company believes that it can continue to stimulate growth in a planet-friendly way through innovation, quality, and service and continues to invest in capacity to support this growth. The company has a crisis management plan in place to respond to future risks including Covid-19 and the Russia–Ukraine crisis,” on its future, McCain Foods GB added.

McCain Foods was established in 1957 and has its global headquarters in Toronto, Canada. It operates in more than 160 countries and has annual revenues over USD14bn Canadian dollars (GBP8.2bn).