Warrens Bakery is ‘strong’, ‘streamlined’, and ready for growth as it reports a 10% increase in sales for its latest financial year.
Full accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023, which were recently published on Companies House, revealed sales had risen by £1.2m to £13.7m. This was a result of new store openings, significant refurbishments, and continued growth from existing outlets, the business said.
Profit before tax fell from £2.7m the year prior to £459k in the latest period. However, Warrens said the 2022 figure was inflated by an exceptional item. The business entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), a process that enables a company to negotiate the repayment of debt rather than filing for liquidation or insolvency, with its suppliers and landlords in December 2019. Due to strategic improvements and strong trading performance, the restructuring-led voluntary arrangement with creditors was completed around three years earlier than anticipated and resulted in a write back to profit of £1.95m. Without this, the normalised profit for 2022 would have been £791k, it noted.
Margins for the most recent period reduced by 2.4% as a result of absorbing some of the high inflation in product costs as well as increased overheads, the firm explained.
Recent trading, which falls outside of the above period, was described by Warrens as ‘solid’ with the seasonal upswing ahead.
“We are in a strong position now, after much restructuring,” chairman Mark Sullivan said. “Now, we are a streamlined business with a growth agenda. Going forward, we are determined to maintain our friendly culture and heritage while transitioning further into new markets.”
Warrens has recently opened stores in Barnstaple and Dartmouth, as well as Bath and Basingstoke railway stations and has a number of further units in the pipeline at various travel and destination sites.
The Cornish business continues to migrate eastwards and diversify its product offering as it looks to reduce seasonality and populate higher footfall locations. Cornish pasties remain a popular menu item, but it has diversified with the likes of cookie dough brownies, millionaire’s shortbread, breakfast baps, and Biscoff doughnuts.
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