The Real Good Food Company announced this week that after disappointing results in 2006, its bakery division had made a satisfactory start to this year.

Its preliminary results for the year ending 31 December 2006 revealed that profitability of chilled patisserie and dessert bakery Haydens deteriorated in spite of sales being up 6% on the previous year. The company said that this was due to costs of product launches over running, a poor trading performance in the summer and increased overheads.

In its first full year under Real Good Food’s ownership, the performance of Renshaw, which makes marzipans and ready-to-roll icings, was "in line with expectations". Customer service improvements and customer development have been a major focus during the year at Renshaw, said RGFC.

Total group revenues were up £250.8m on 2005’s £117.7m and profit before tax was up £9.5m compared with £7.1m in 2005. The Real Good Food Company’s divisions include bakery, bakery ingredients, fish and sugar.

"The successful integration of Napier Brown Foods has resulted in an excellent full year contribution from the business against a volatile sugar market," said Pieter Totté, non-executive chairman. "The Real Good Food Company is well on its way to becoming a significant player in the UK food sector."