Real Good Food returns to make profits thanks to boom in home baking

By This Is Money Reporter
Ingredients firm Real Good Food today said a boom in home baking helped it to make a comeback to half-year profits.
The Liverpool-based group, which provides supermarkets with own-label baking ingredients, made progress across all its divisions and said it hoped to benefit from the trend by rolling out new speciality sugar ranges under its brand Whitworths this autumn.
Real Good Food made profits £1.15million in the six months to June 30 against a loss of £1.1million a year earlier. 

 Sugar brand Whitworths was founded in 1886 and its food ingredients division has been owned by a private equity group since 2006.

Real Good Food’s cake ingredients brand Renshaw, which has plants at Liverpool and Glasgow, saw sales rise 11 per cent and is also planning to expand its range to include cake decorating tools and colours, as well as cake fillings and toppings. 
The division, which provides cake manufacturers with items such as macaroon paste, marzipan and mallows, posted operating profits of £1.1million, up 70 per cent on last year.
The sugar division Napier Brown, which includes Whitworths, made an operating profit of £1.2million compared with break-even a year ago.

Despite heavy increases in commodity costs and its need to find sources of sugar outside of Europe, underlying profits for the group jumped from £600,000 to £2.7million.

The group said it had ‘worked hard’ to pass on higher commodity costs. Haydens Bakeries, which provides patisserie and dessert products for Waitrose and M&S, posted an increased loss of £624,000, despite sales rising by 10 per cent, as costs were affected by an upgrade of its plant at Devizes in Wiltshire.

Total sales in the first rose by 21 per cent to £109.8million.

Real Good Food shares were up 1.50p to 54p in morning trading.