Food and beverage retailer, Veritas Investments Limited, stated the company is on track to achieve its 2017 guidance after its first quarter of trading.

The owner of Mad Butcher and Nosh Food Markets announced it remains on track to achieve its previously stated revenue forecast of $50 million to $55 million and underlying NPAT in the range of $3.0 million to $3.6 million for the year ending June 30, 2017.

Tim Cook, Veritas Investments chair, said trading remains competitive with Mad Butcher with a number of stores experiencing aggressive supermarket competition.

“The company is entering what is traditionally its strongest trading period, being Christmas and summer,” Cook said. “The company has implemented a number of marketing and cost control initiatives that have resulted in a slight improvement in underlying profitability despite the trading conditions mentioned above, compared to the previous year to date.”

With Nosh, Cook said the operational changes and profit improvement programme that the business has implemented are contributing to a reduction in the ongoing operating losses.

“We expect the results to further improve with the increased trading over the Christmas period. The franchise marketing programme continues with encouraging levels of interest,” he said.

According to Cook, the Better Bar Company, during the first quarter, exceeded its EBITDA budget and showed a significant improvement on last year’s result for the same period.

He said ongoing improvements are planned for several of the outlets to enhance the customer experience, and added trading is expected to be strong over the next quarter.

The wind down programme for Kiwi Pacific Foods is on target and is largely complete, Cook said, and all remaining matters are expected to be finalised on or before March 31, 2017.

In August, the company posted an unaudited net loss of $4.59 million for the year ending June 30 compared to a profit of $3.33 million the previous year.