Refinancing deal secures extra £4.5M for Fletchers Bakery

The agreement represents a renewal of existing loan facilities. Fletchers said it would aim to use the cash to maintain its growth and plant developments across its Sheffield, Manchester and London sites.

“Over the last two years, Fletchers has invested more than £14M in existing facilities and creating new capacity,"​ said group finance director Paul Devlin.

"We have also had to make some hard decisions to rationalise non-profitable parts of the business and facing these difficult challenges has strengthened the company substantially.​

'Further development'​

“We look forward to the future, and the opportunities this brings for further development across our three current businesses and potential new investment opportunities, underpinned by the new banking facility.”​

Developments over the past year include the closure of a loss-making facility in Barnsley, Yorkshire, and investment in a £7M production facility​ at its Sheffield operations.

The company has also spent £4M on food manufacturing facilities at Grain D’Or in London​ to increase production capacity by 40% and £1M on a new cold store in Manchester​.

The cold store would double capacity and boost environmental and technical efficiencies at its dedicated Kara Foodservice business unit.  

Fletchers Group supplies fresh and frozen bakery products to top supermarkets and foodservice businesses.