The Real Good Food Company has announced a return to fortunes following a flat year in 2008, with Hayden’s Bakery and Renshaw leading the revival.
Hayden’s was on track for 30% growth by the end of this year on 2008, and demand for Renshaw’s products are currently matching that of its peak Christmas season.
Bakery ingredients supplier Renshaw, which has been decoupled from group sister company Napier Brown, having been loosely merged in a cost-cutting exercise, was seeing a boom in home baking products. New lines have been earmarked for specialist home baking through retail channels, as well as professional bakery ingredients, for the fouth quarter of 2010.
Speaking at the group AGM today (Thursday), chairman Peter Totte said: "Renshaw is motoring, there’s no two ways about it, and there are many growth opportunities that we can build on. We’re busier than at Christmas and that looks set to continue throughout the year."
He added that Hayden’s Bakery, which supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Costa, had fixed its "broken management model" and had refocused its strategy on being a "market-led business rather than manufacturing led". This had led to a the launch of 40 products through Waitrose in October last year.
Said Totte: “Hayden’s has continued its strong sales growth and the newly-completed management team is delivering on our expectations for the turnaround of this business. The challenge now is to deliver a modernisation plan for this business, as it expands into 55,000sq ft of additional space next month, but the strength of its relationships with key customers means we look forward to a good performance in the seasonally stronger second half of the year."
Meanwhile, sugar supplier Napier Brown predicted a rise in sugar market prices of 10% over the next two years.
“Our Napier sugar business is in a transitional year, following the EU sugar regime changes, but is starting to build momentum ahead of the new contract season in October," said Totte. "The market is expecting price increases and, in terms of supply, there have been some shortages of sugar globally. Within the EU the market is tight, albeit just in balance. Negotiations for the new season are well under way and I am optimistic that we will start to see growth in both volumes and profitability."
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