The blaze at Persian bakery Tavazo on Monday, March 14 happened a day before the store was due to open for the first time. Damage to the premises was estimated to have cost the company £50,000.
The Metropolitan Police said: “CCTV footage captured the suspect approaching the rear door of the premises, opening it and then walking around dousing the floor with a flammable liquid from a black fuel container.”
Fire alarms were in place at the building, but had been covered up and did not work.
Fire and criminal damage
Police were called at 5:30am following reports of fire and criminal damage. Rebuilding the bakery would take up to two months, it was understood.
Anyone with information regarding the fire has been urged to contact the police by telephoning 101, or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
The blaze at Tavazo bakery was reported by FoodManufacture.co.uk shortly after the attack. Six fire engines and 35 firefighters and officers battled the blaze.
Brothers Shari Roberto and Mehram Armando – who owned Tavazo – were said to own another food business in Ealing, West London.
“We are both upset and angry that someone would do this to us right before we were meant to open,” said Roberto.
Suspected to have been arson
Meanwhile, arson was also suspected to be the cause of a second bakery fire in Tottenham, north London.
The fire – which broke out in the evening of April 2 – ripped through a single story industrial bakery unit and caused the building to partially collapse.
London Fire Bridage station manager Ian Frame said: “Crews were confronted with a large fire when they arrived and worked hard to confine it to the bakery and stop it spreading.”