Up to 115 jobs could be made redundant after Morrisons announced the closure of its Rathbones bakery site in Wakefield.
The retailer first revealed it was considering shuttering the 28,000 sq ft facility more than a year ago after several failed attempts to return the business to profitability. Three months later, it revealed it had opted instead to downsize operations and focus on baking specialist products such as crumpets, pancakes, naans, and pittas.
Today (7 January 2026), a spokesperson for Myton Food Group – the manufacturing arm of Morrisons which runs Rathbones bakery – confirmed the “difficult decision” to close the business. Rathbones reported a £668k profit after tax in the year ending 27 October 2024, however this was noted as the result of a change in the way accounts had been compiled, with underlying profit remaining challenged.
The spokesperson said the Rathbones team had been working hard since the restructuring in early 2025 to try and build a future for the business as a smaller, more focused supplier of specialist bakery products.
“Since then, the trading conditions in the bakery market have become even more challenging and despite a tremendous effort by the whole team to develop new markets, volumes and sales have declined significantly, exacerbated by the loss of a large third party customer, with cost increases and the return of inflation also having a significant impact on the competitiveness of the business,” said the spokesperson.
“As a result, the sales performance has fallen well below that envisaged by the recovery plan, with the business continuing to report significant losses. Regrettably, having thoroughly reviewed all alternatives, we can no longer see a way back to breakeven and have taken the difficult decision to close the remaining facility,” they added.
The previous 378-strong workforce at Rathbones had been slashed down to 138 when the downsizing occurred last year. This number had since dropped further to its current 115 workers, which were notified of the closure proposal on 5 January with a consultation launched immediately.
Myton Food Group said it was “fully committed to doing everything we can to help all those affected”, including identifying other suitable roles elsewhere in the company. It said it has yet to decide on whether to sell or repurpose the site, whilst confirming that in-store bakeries at Morrisons would not be affected by the closure.
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