It’s been just over a year since cake decoration specialist Rainbow Dust was acquired by Albex Group after previous owner Real Good Food sold it shortly before entering administration.
Things weren’t in a good place. Prior to the acquisition Rainbow Dust – which produces a range of food colours, lustre dusts, glitters, sugar craft essentials, and more for home and professional bakers – was on a “downward spiral”, underfunded, and running on a “skeleton staff”.
“There had been quite a lot of redundancies and morale was low,” explains Liz Whieldon, marketing manager, who was with the business prior to its acquisition. “There had been very little investment in the brand, and we never had any capital to buy machinery or to grow the product portfolio. It desperately needed a refresh but there simply wasn’t the funds to do it.”
One year later and Rainbow Dust is in a much more positive place. Having been bought by the Albex Group for a cash consideration of £800k, it now sits among a portfolio of brands, including Kent Foods, BFP, and Henley Bridge. It continues to operate from its BRC AA+ accredited production site in Preston, which is due to begin manufacturing fellow cake decoration specialist Squires Kitchen products following its acquisition by Rainbow Dust just this week.
The recent acquisition is an important marker in Rainbow Dust’s turnaround – highlighting one aspect of the investment which is setting the business up for the future.
“We have become leaner as a business, invested in new machinery and opened a warehouse in the Netherlands servicing customers throughout Europe,” says Rainbow Dust MD Louise Wane. “We’ve also introduced a game-changing marketing strategy with social media channels delivering relevant content, and a team of brand ambassadors in the UK and EU including GBBO 14 finalist Josh Smalley. We’ve also launched a new website to provide a better buying experience.”
The moves are paying off. Sales increased by 35% between January and September 2024, according to the firm.
Investment was also required in the Rainbow Dust team, with UK sales manager Kyle Rodgers coming on board joining the likes of operations manager Liz Henshaw, who is described as “the backbone of the business”, NPD manager Glynis Osborne, European sales manager Alejandro Rodriguez, and B2B marketing manager Carl Revis, who joined from BFP.
“One of the first things we did was bring back key people who had been made redundant under the previous ownership,” says Wane. “This business is all about the people and their knowledge and passion, and we realised very quickly that they were crucial to the company’s re-birth.”
The next stage of the Rainbow Dust turnaround is to make the NPD roadmap a reality, with a plan in place to introduce a “flurry of innovative new products” over the next year, Whieldon explains.
“We’re planning to shake up the professional bakery community with an NPD-led marketing approach to lure bakers out of their comfort zone,” Rodgers says, noting that the bakery sector is very traditional which means people tend to follow what their parents and grandparents made.
This will be supported by a brand refresh, hoped to launch in Q1 next year. Along with a “more modern and friendly logo”, the old clam packs are also being replaced with recyclable packaging.
New markets are on the horizon too, Rodgers notes, highlighting “huge opportunities in other sectors, such as chocolatiers, drinks, and, because the brand is Halal certified, the Asian food sector”.
“Historically we’ve been a cake decorating company, but the group has opened up avenues and opportunities for us to engage with different types of customers and provided shared marketing exposure, particularly in the chocolate and bakery sectors,” he adds. “We no longer feel like a little company trying to navigate on our own because we’re part of a group that is so well established.”
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