Bakery group McCambridge has secured £6m funding from Barclays Bank to invest in its Soreen and own-label brands.
The firm, which recently filed its accounts, has made an operating profit of £2.7m to 30 June 2009, compared to a £5.4m loss in its previous financial year.
Group commercial director Neil Fraser told British Baker that McCambridge had gained support from its main investor, Barclays, to turn the business around. Part of the capital is being spent on new machinery in order to improve production efficiencies. "With the Soreen business we will also be investing in marketing to try and drive brand awareness," explained Fraser. "It’s really a two-pronged plan commercial and operational." Barclays has provided "the bulk" of funding for the project, with additional cash investment coming from McCambridge.
Fraser explained that the Soreen business is slightly ahead in terms of the installation of new equipment, due to the seaso-nality of its own-label business, which manufactures products such as mince pies. For own-label, "the physical work will commence very early January, with expected completion in June", he said.
The sale earlier this year of six of its smaller bakeries, acquired when the firm bought cake firm Inter Link out of administration in 2007, has made "a big difference in terms of efficiency", according to Fraser. He added that one of the future aims of the business was to have more "centres of excellence rather than trying to be all things to all men".
Fraser said that the firm’s entire business, plus its Irish and Polish operations which comprise its Creative Cake, own-label and Soreen divisions "are all on track". And as the bulk of McCambridge’s business will be finished by Christmas, he added: "We’re quietly confident we’ll hit the numbers we’ve told investors we would this year."

Topics