As we work our way towards the next set of earnings releases from the UK’s listed companies, it makes sense to start thinking about what’s in store. Cranswick Foods released a trading statement for the year ending 31 March on 5 April, a nice little warm-up (or you could think of it as defrosting the Sunday joint).

Given the tough times we’ve seen year to date – not so much everything going down, more everything going kind of all over the place – it’s heartening to see Cranswick Foods posting a strong quarter to end its financial year with sales volumes up over 10% year-on-year. Clearly, when the going gets tough, the tough start eating pork. I was wondering what all the young people reportedly spurning the booze had turned to as a substitute. I now know – bacon!

It is, of course, just as ludicrous to expect demand for sausages to increase in constant percentage terms indefinitely as it is to expect the Chinese economy to do the same. But both of the aforementioned are clearly still what everyone’s expecting. Granted, they might be right to do so. Cranswick Foods exports…food… to China. The Chinese are all leaving their farms to become stockbrokers. Stockbrokers love sausages. It’s logical.

The other thing people do, rich or poor, is make the Saturday trip to Primark where they do their weekly clothes shop. Nowadays, you see, clothes are so cheap you can wear them just once. And only once. But they are so cheap that it doesn’t matter. I’ve been to Primark before. It’s a remarkable place – swarming with consumers. To be honest, I went in the door, up the escalator, back down the escalator and back out the door. It wasn’t for me – I found the sight of a shopper having collapsed with exhaustion into her own shopping bag caused me to wonder just what rung of the evolutionary ladder we’re all really on, but it works for a lot of people and I respect that.

That said, key to making good investment decisions is to remove oneself from the crowd, observe the crowd, work out what it’s going to do and then capitalise on whatever it is it does do. UK blue chip Associated British Foods owns Primark and, make no mistake, exhausted bargain hunters hibernating in their enormous string baskets spell one thing if they can rouse themselves and make it to the till: revenue!

So while Cranswick Foods depends on Pork products that give you cancer (apparently), Associated British Foods will always have a clothing business that people just can’t get enough of, not to mention the potential for a Primark IPO once these markets sort themselves out. As long as it keeps its factories upright, ABF is where I’d be.

Augustin Eden, Research Analyst (5 April)