Northern Foods cheer at popularity of cheap eats

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The pizza, biscuits and sandwiches group was upbeat today, insisting it is in a strong position whatever the economic weather.

By shifting its focus towards the discount supermarkets and helping Marks & Spencer come up with cheaper food ranges, Northern reckons it could be in for a good Christmas.

Profit in the half-year to the end of September slipped by £3.2 million to £16.9 million, but sales are on the up -- rising 7% to £469 million.

Unlike many other businesses, Northern says it has not seen a rapid downturn in the last month.

Chief executive Stefan Barden said: "We would not have wanted the credit crunch, but we are adapting very quickly to it. There are opportunities."

It is making value pastas and sandwiches for Tesco, cheap biscuits for Aldi and many of the £10 meals that M&S is heavily promoting.

Goodfellas, its pizza brand, is back as the market leader with a 32% share of the field. Dresdner Kleinwort think frozen pizzas will do well as "consumers feeling the pinch trade down from move expensive chilled varieties"