Mr Kipling maker Premier Foods posts higher sales on strong cake, grocery demand

(Reuters) -Premier Foods on Wednesday reported a rise in first-quarter sales on robust demand for its cakes and grocery products and said it was raising product prices to mitigate the impact of higher costs.

"We have made good progress in recovering our input cost inflation through a range of measures, including cost efficiencies and pricing, and we continue to monitor the situation closely," Chief Executive Officer Alex Whitehouse said.

Brtain's grocery sector has come under pressure from a costs-of-living crisis in Britain and supply disruptions from the war in Ukraine, as surging prices have caused the biggest squeeze on UK household incomes since at least the 1950s.

The maker of Mr Kipling cakes and OXO cubes had warned in May that it would be affected by rising prices of commodities as well as surging energy prices and the slowing UK economy.

Premier Foods said its sales during the three months to July 2 rose 6% compared to the prior year, and that it expects to deliver full-year earnings in line with its estimates.

(Reporting by Muhammed Husain in Bengaluru;Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)