Part of the collapsed bakery ingredients supplier BFP Wholesale has been bought by a firm which is run by a director of Kent Foods for an undisclosed sum, British Baker can reveal.

The joint administrators, Rob Croxen and Will Wright from KPMG, confirmed the partial sale of BFP to C&C 25 Limited, which lists John Mcgregor Dalglish as its lone director. Dalglish is also a director at Kent Foods Limited, an ingredients supplier headquartered in Glasgow.

The sale means C&C 25 will acquire the Leeds and Livingston sites and all of the stock of the national bakery ingredients wholesaler. British Baker understands that former BFP managing director Nick Harris will have a role in the new business.

The staff connected with the Leeds and Livingston sites will also transfer to the purchaser. Meanwhile, the Sevenoaks and Highbridge sites have ceased trading.

Rob Croxen, partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said: “We are pleased to have completed a swift partial sale of the BFP Wholesale business, safeguarding the operations and employees at the Leeds and Livingston sites.”

The administrators were appointed on Tuesday, 3 May after BFP had “undergone a sustained period of declining revenues, which was exacerbated by the withdrawal of its credit insurance”. The final death blow for the company followed weeks of rumours and calls to British Baker from bakers who were unable to get their orders from the wholesaler.

Shockwaves

Its collapse last week sent shockwaves around the industry and it is understood many suppliers sent representatives to the Sevenoaks headquarters of the company over the last week to speak to administrators and management in a bid to get stock back.

The company had been owned by the private equity consortium Zimt Holding since 2014 after it was sold by the French yeast company Lesaffre. Zimt moved quickly to try and improve the situation at BFP by closing its depot in Tamworth in Staffordshire and appointing Bill Thurston as chief executive.

However, in its most recent accounts for the year ended 31 December 2014, BFP said that difficulties on the high street and food price deflation had resulted in a £3.1m decline in turnover to £73m and it made an operating loss of £1.6m. 

A full list of BFP’s creditors has to be unveiled within eight weeks of its collapse into administration.

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