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Premier Foods, the UK's largest food producer, has warned that it may need to raise its bread prices further as a result of rising wheat costs.

In a statement today the company confirmed that pro-forma trading profits for its Bread Bakeries business almost halved to £19 million in the six months to June 30th.

Profit before tax from continuing operations also fell by almost 50 per cent over the period, dropping to £13.9 million.

However recent acquisitions boosted Premier's performance, reflected in a 112 per cent rise in trading profits, which climbed to £96.8 million.

Premier confirmed that it had completed the integration of soup maker Campbell's UK operations into its business, after an acquisition at the end of last year.

The company confirmed that the integration of RHM was also "proceeding at pace", with Premier having bought the firm behind brands such as Hovis and Mothers Pride in March.

Premier said today that it remains confident of achieving cost synergies totalling £113 million as a result of both acquisitions.

Company bosses are also confident of delivering underlying sales growth for the year in line with a stated target of between 1.5 and two per cent.

Nonetheless, Premier chief executive Robert Schofield stressed that wheat prices had increased by an "unprecedented" amount over the past few weeks and had led the firm to increase the price of its bread and flour products as a result.

"If current wheat prices persist additional bread and flour price increases will be required," he warned.