Stand-up comedian, actor, and TV presenter Romesh Ranganathan has purchased a stake in Coughlans Bakery, as it looks to continue expanding its retail estate.
The investment, made for an undisclosed sum, secures him a part of the 87-year-old business that operates a chain of 31 shops across South London, Surrey, Kent, and West Sussex.
In a video reel posted yesterday (28 November) to his Instagram page – which has more than 1.1m followers – Ranganathan claimed that compared to his usual showbiz announcements, he was “most excited” to reveal his new partnership with Coughlans.
“There is something that I’ve wanted to get involved with for a long, long time,” he said, before panning the camera up to reveal himself in front of Coughlans’ newest shop in Crawley.
Ranganathan also showed him standing with the company’s director Sean Coughlan. “I’m going to be doing more baking, he’s going to be doing more stand-up comedy,” joked the comic.
Coughlan told British Baker that he was “super proud” to have Ranganathan as part of the family business, which was founded by his grandfather Jack in 1937. He now runs it with his two sisters as the third generation of owners.
“It’s the first time in our 87 years that we’ve had a non-family member on the board,” commented Coughlan. “It feels like family and we’re very much welcome him into our family.”
Relationship roots
Ranganathan first reached out to Coughlans around eight years ago to order some vegan food. Approximately 95% of the bakery’s entire range is plant-based including sweet and savoury pastries, sandwiches, and cakes.
Director Coughlan stayed in contact with Ranganathan, who urged him to open a store in the Maidenbower area of Crawley, the town he grew up in and still lives to this day – his 2018 autobiography is entitled ‘Straight Outta Crawley: Memoirs of a Distinctly Average Human’.
Despite finding a suitable location, it took another two years of waiting for the existing lease to end before the bakery shop finally opening in July of this year, shortly after the company had unveiled its 30th outlet in Horley.
A couple of months prior, Ranganathan and Coughlans had collaborated on the launch of the vegan Ranga Yum Yum, which is topped with chocolate and Biscoff crumbs. Originally created for just a limited run of two months to help raise money for suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), it proved highly popular to claim a permanent place on the menu at all stores.
Room for growth
All of Coughlans’ shops are supplied with fresh products twice daily made at its 25,000 sq ft factory hidden in the backstreets of Thornton Heath, said to be just round the corner from Crystal Palace football ground. The company took over this site back in 1971, but it has actually been a bakery for a total of around 200 years, informed Coughlan.
Over the years, Coughlans has roughly doubled the size of the production space, modernised the interior, and added new machinery. However, the director noted the bakery is not yet running 24-hour shifts, leaving capacity to increase volumes by around double its current output.
This would support further expansion of its estate, which has gone from 19 to 31 stores in the past four years. Coughlan said franchising was “something we’re looking at”, pointing to the likes of Greggs and Pret as examples of running successful franchise models for growth.
There’ll likely be some more collaborations with Ranganathan to help elevate the brand as well. “We’ve got a few really cool ideas about some things that are very different. We haven’t really put that out there yet, but we will be,” expressed Coughlan.
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