SNACK supplier Bobby's Foods of Bromsgrove has had its profits crunched by a property valuation write-off.

The company on Saxon Business Park, Stoke Prior, which employs around 190 staff and supplies snacks, sweets, cakes and drinks to almost 20,000 local shops across the UK, has seen sales climb but has been pushed into the red on a pre-tax basis.

Newly filed accounts for the year to the end of September 2015 revealed revenues had increased to £32.6m from £31.6m a year earlier. However, the company reported a pre-tax loss of £918,375 compared to a profit of £2.4m in 2014.

A statement from the board of Bobby's said this was down to a property valuation which took place on July 1. As a result, a provision of £3.1m was written off against the profits and a surplus of £1m was put into revaluation reserves. The statement added the results were considered "satisfactory" and that the company had experienced a rise in customer numbers and group accounts.

A Bobby's spokesman said: "We are proud to say that despite some tough times within the industry our sales are up, our margins are maintained and our customer numbers are steadily increasing whilst costs are contained. The revaluation of the properties has come about as a result of our desire to build bespoke depots across the country which actually cost more than their sale price should we want to sell which of course we don't. We have always wanted staff to be working in superior conditions and our expenditure in this respect reflects that. As time goes by our property values are expected to increase so this is really a temporary property blip."

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