Crunch Time for Cereal Maker

ROB O'NEILL

Crunch time for cereal maker

Last updated 05:00 17/07/2011

Rivals are eating into Hubbard Foods' market share, writes Rob O'Neill.

Breakfast cereal maker Hubbard Foods is finding the going tough, falling into the red by $1.09 million for the year to March

31.

It has also emerged that Hubbard chief executive Doug Paulin has left and a search is under way to find a replacement.

Paulin has joined fishing company Sealord as general manager of New Zealand fish.

Hubbard is a private company and as such does not release its financial results. But in December 2009, the Rotorua

Energy Charitable Trust bought a 35% stake in the company for just over $5m and records the company's contributions in

its accounts.

This year that was a loss of $388,478, putting Hubbard's total loss for the year at just over $1m.

Hubbard does not disclose its total sales numbers, but market data from Synovate posted on the company's website claims

a market share of 9.3% at November 14 last year. That is 0.1% down on figures published on the site last year which in

turn were down from 11.3% reported in 2007.

At that time, total sales were reported as $38.5m, producing a profit before tax of $1.5m.

Hubbard has a different balance date to the Rotorua Trust, so the figures for the year are based on unaudited management

accounts, the trust's annual report says.

Meanwhile, Hubbard's rivals for the New Zealand breakfast bowl appear to be gaining market share.

These include Sanitarium (a charity owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church) and international giant Kellogg.

Sanitarium's numbers are wrapped up in those of the church's New Zealand Conference Association charity, but are

believed to provide the bulk of the charity's trading revenue. In the year to June 30, sales increased substantially from

$70.7m to $82.6m, while expenses from "nutrition, wellbeing and health food activities" rose from $62.6m in 2009 to

$74.2m.

With Kellogg recording a small increase in sales locally from $45.8m to $47m - matched by

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