Long Established Wholesale Craft Bakery With Superb Reputation For Sale

Business description

This high-end craft bakery was originally born out of a small family retail bakery in a small town in Suffolk, established in the 1920’s. Over the years, the company grew to include 6 further shops. In the 1990’s the vendor sold the additional 6 outlets as going concerns, and centralised the business back to the core shop. In 2005, they moved all the bakery production to the current unit on an light industrial park, whilst keeping the cornerstone originaly bakery. Rapidly expanding the wholesale bakery business, and trading on this well known name, the current bakery has grown from a turnover of £300K to the present £1.2 million, in only 4 years, with forcasts to continue growing at this rate.

The business enjoys no competition locally for the high end of the market, and has developed strong relations with chains of independent owner manged mid-size supermarkets as well as some major household names in food retailing.

The business has won and kept accounts due to their continuous focus on the highest level of ingredients, and careful hand made attention to detail, to provide the highest quality products at a very competitve price. The business is flexible in their ability to turn around orders, and are regulary called in when other larger backeries fall to meet orders. The business is well placed to supply over 100 product lines including all types of traditional British bread products, cakes, confectionery and patisseries. They are all freshly made & baked within the bakery to order. Currently running at 60% capacity, and very profitable, there is huge potential for growth to a new owner, and exceptional possibilities to increase the net profit level with a move to more of an automated structure.

Equipment:

The business assets include a large amount of high quality equipment, most pieces are approximately 3-4 years old. These include:-

FostersTM Walk in Freezer and Walk in Chiller
ChandleyTM 15 tray deck oven and 24 tray deck over
PolinTM 2 rack oven
AdpackTM 3 x Semi automatic L sealer and a Fully automatic L sealer
RecordTM Panda flow wrapper

A 2 bag spiral mixer, a 1 bag spiral mixer and a 1 bag high speed mixer
2 x 60 quart planetary mixers and 2 x 20 quart planetary mixers
Water meter, 2 x 4 rack retarder proofers, 16 piece hydraulic dough divider
Bread moulder, 30 piece fully automatic roll divider, 30 piece semi automatic roll divider, 6 loaf automatic bread slicer, Automatic 4 station John Hunt pie machine, Doughnut fryer, 2 x Rondo pastry breaks and 2000 new bread baskets (name embossed) @ £7 each

Long wheel base 2007 boxer van, Long wheel base 2008 jumbo transit van
And a 2006 Ford Focus car

Customer Service:

The business prides itself on their customer service, and it is one of the cornerstones of the ongoing success. The company is of a size where it competes at a higher level than a small wholesaler who cannot meet a large order effectively, but is also flexible enough due to the working practices to meet short notice orders quickly – with an exceptional turnaround time. Due to the time overall in the bakery business, they are the most experienced wholesalers in the region. There is a constant focus on the hand made attention to detail, which means that the outlets are always more than satisfied with the product on their shelves and business is continuous. The company prides itself on giving a craft bakery product, in a professional and efficient large scale manner. All products are offered fully bar coded, which smaller local bakeries cannot offer, they are also known for the constant reliability of service, when others fail.

Quality Assurance:

As well as meeting all of the stringent requirements of Health & Safety the business has won numerous awards over the years, which will be invaluable to a new owner

Key Strengths:

Alongside the well known name, and reputation for reliable and flexible service, the business has an experienced, dedicated and loyal workforce with a highly skilled second tier of management that has enabled the current owner to take a back seat in the day-to-day operations of the business. The company has a full product range, and an established and growing good quality client base from which to maintain income and expand. The location of the production site, allows for easy access to the road network and supply from the M25 to the edge of East Anglia.

Financial Information:

The business is being offered for sale on a going concern basis, all financial discussions will take place directly between the vendor and all interested parties under the auspices of Turner Butler.

Turnover for 2008 was £1.26 million, growing from £1.05 million in 2007. Gross profit was £842,000, with a net of £143,000. The assets have a net book value of £87,000. Stock is ongoing of circa £6000. A far higher percentage of the gross profit could be realised with changes to the business model.

Property information

Property:

Leasehold

Lease terms:

Rent £11,000 fixed until 2013
Rates £6,500 per annum

Location:

Leasehold renewable in 2013
Square footage circa 6000
Rent £11,000 fixed until 2013
Rates £6,500 per annum

Other information

Expansion potential:

This venture shows fantastic growth and expansion opportunities. They are currently at the Audit stage with a major national supermarket, which can be capitalised on by a new owner. Also, with the business currently running at 60% of capacity from the premises, whilst still being very profitable, new orders can be fulfilled easily. The business is run with minimal automation, again with some investment in automated equipment, the wage bill could be cut, and capacity increased even more, with a greater profit margin on each unit supplied. The current vendor has looked in to supplying ready packaged products, which would be the next step. Again, this involves excellent margins and would strengthen the ties with some of the companies major clients.

Competition / Market:

In support of the Field Sales Manager, the company sends out regular point of sale promotional material. There is currently limited advertising and on-line presence, the company building via the trading history and direct sales meetings. The business can be greatly expanded with more of a marketing focus.

Support & training:

The current owner will provide all necessary training and handover to ensure a smooth transfer of the business to new Owners.

Reasons for selling:

After over 20 years growing the business to the current operation, the vendor wishes to sell the business at a growing stage, to another owner who wishes to take it to the next level. The vendor is looking for to enjoy semi-retirement whilst working with his property portfolio.

Trading hours:

Monday – Friday: 24 hour operation.
Saturday: 7 am shut down and clean
Sunday: Open 7 pm