"Whilst we're heading into an inflationary period now, the first half was characterized by deflation, and you can see that in the revenue number, which fell 7% to £190m ($240m)," Atherton said. "Despite that, we managed to improve our profitability." 'Industry leading statistic' Mark Allen, chief executive, said that the company's four key brands are continuing to perform well in a challenging marketplace, with strong volume growth for Clover, Country Life and Frylight and a successful launch of new branding and packaging for Cathedral City. "Profits are up around 20%, our brands are growing at around 2% in volume terms, and we started production of our galacto-oligosaccharides and demineralized whey down at Davidstow," Allen said.