Finsbury Food Group to focus on acquisitions

The speciality baker revealed, in unaudited results, that group revenue was up 46% to £156.6M and operating profit was up by 78% to £8M, for the 26 weeks ended December 26 2015.

The acquisition of the Fletcher Group of Bakeries in October 2014 and Johnstone’s Just Desserts in June 2015 had been fully integrated into the business, providing a broader spread of customers across food retail and foodservice channels.

Organic sales growth hit 7.4% versus the same period last year, driven by market share growth across the group.

With acquisitions

John Duffy, chief executive of Finsbury Food Group, said the company would continue to focus on growth both organically and with acquisitions.

“Having built solid foundations and implemented a robust growth strategy that aims to create sustainable value for our stakeholders, we look forward to driving further growth both organically and through strategic M&A [mergers and acquisitions],” he said.

The company said operationally there had been developments including the opening of a new cake innovation centre and diversification into foodservice with existing cake sites as well as the launch of artisan breads.

‘Strong first half’

“We are very pleased to once again be reporting a strong first half performance, with our organic growth being supplemented by the acquisition of Fletchers and Johnstone’s,” said Duffy.

“Alongside this growth, our capital investment strategy, together with our continued efficiency programme has resulted in improved operating margins.

“Despite operating in a challenging market, we have created a group that is well positioned to flourish in an improving environment and we look forward to benefitting from increased consumer confidence.”

The group is now one of the largest speciality bakery groups in the UK with annualised revenues exceeding £300M.

Last year Finsbury was a finalist in the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards in the Bakery manufacturer of the year category.