The Real Good Food Company has announced it predicts profit before taxation of around £0.5m in its full year results to 31 December. The company has also made the decision to relocate its London head office function to its Liverpool manufacturing site, as part of a series of cost-saving initiatives.

Chief executive officer Stephen Heslop remarked that the continued deterioration in the economic climate has had a noticeable affect on all its trading divisons – sugar, baking ingredients and bakery – to “varying degrees”.

“Within Renshaw, our Bakery Ingredients division performance is in line with our expectations. The trend towards increased home baking has aided sales into retailers, which has offset reducing volumes to the manufacturing sector,” said Heslop.

Revenues within its Sugar division, Napier Brown Foods, have suffered, due to reduced sales in the industrial sector. “Consequently, we now expect our revenues to be 7-9% behind last year.” However, the company said that margins have improved from the lows seen in the third quarter.

Its Bakery Division, Haydens Bakeries, has been developing foodservice lines, which has incurred one-off costs, but the company said steps are being taken to address these issues.

“The economic outlook for 2009 remains uncertain and the competitive pricing in retail is expected to continue. However, we have already seen a recovery in industrial sugar margins in the last quarter of 2008 and expect them to continue during 2009,” said Heslop, who added that the company is preparing itself for the challenges ahead.