Maggie Beer Holdings sees growth in shift to at-home dining and entertaining

The rising popularity of in-home dining and entertaining should see a growth in demand for fine ingredients, says the boss of Maggie Beer Holdings.

The boss of the food and hampers business that owns the Maggie Beer cooking brand believes the shift by consumers to dine at home more, as well as entertain friends and family at home, will play to the premium foodie retailer’s strengths.

Maggie Beer Holdings chief executive Kinda Grange, who joined the company last year, has also set out an ambitious growth strategy despite cost of living pressures tightening household budgets, and is targeting to more than triple sales to $300m within the next five years.

Giving her confidence Maggie Beer Holdings — which also owns a hampers and gift-giving business — can hit its sales and growth targets includes a move into new channels and categories. This includes a new arm that will sell kitchen appliances under the Maggie Beer Living range.

But for now the Maggie Beer business is showing the strains of the current pressure on consumer spending.

On Monday, Maggie Beer Holdings, which formerly traded under the name Longtable Group, posted a modest 1.4 per cent drop in full-year revenue to $88.706m.

Its bottom line swung into the black — with a net profit of $462,000 reversing the prior year’s loss of $12.5m — on the back of a clawback in its hamper business.

Maggie Beer had previously booked a provision of $14m for an expected payment related to the acquisition of its hamper business, which was bought two years ago for $40m.

However, the poor performance of its hampers arm and its failure to meet certain earnings hurdles meant an earn-out payment to the vendors of that business was not necessary, with the one-off reversal boosting Maggie Beer’s financial year 2023 profit.

Maggie Beer at her farm outside of Adelaide. Picture: Jack Fenby

Its flagship Maggie Beer arm, famous for its portfolio of pantry fillers such as quince paste, vinegars, verjuice and chutney, saw sales lift 1.9 per cent to $30.587m, although a shift in channels and product mix dented margins for the division. Gross margin was impacted by higher operating costs and a general consumer shift from online to instore, the company said, falling 1.4 percentage points to 50.3 per cent.

Its cooking category was up 12.4 per cent from launch and increased distribution of stocks and bone broths.

Renowned TV cook Maggie Beer sold her business into the ASX-listed company more than four years ago and remains a major shareholder and director of Maggie Beer Holdings.

Ms Grange said the foodie and hamper company was well positioned to grow despite the pressures on household budgets, with more Australians choosing to dine in at home and this was where they could be enticed to jump online and order from the Maggie Beer collection.

“Eating at home is always good for business,” Ms Grange told The Australian.

“Particularly that given Maggie Beer products are high quality, premium food products and given that entertaining is one of the key occasions our product range across paste, pate and cheese talks to. So eating and entertaining at home will be a positive trend for our business.

“And for our cooking range as well.”

She said the marketplace challenges and shifting consumer habits the company experienced during the year have served as catalysts for it to reframe its strategy during the year.

“Our five-year strategy is focused on unlocking value across Maggie Beer Holdings, optimising and unifying our assets, expanding the Maggie Beer brand, and building scale in our e-commerce platform as we further diversify our categories.

“This five-year strategy supports our aspiration to create a $300m net sales revenue business with strong margins and return on assets,” she said.

Originally published as Maggie Beer Holdings sees growth in shift to at-home dining and entertaining