Baker Finsbury Food Group sees birthday cake market hit by lockdowns

The pandemic's blow to birthday parties saw the celebration cake market take a hit as lockdown impact offset retail growth in the first half for manufacturer Finsbury Food Group.

The AIM-listed firm, which provides supermarket cakes and also supplies schools, universities and chains such as Burger King, today reported group revenues down 4.1% to £152.9 million in the six months to end December, after what chief executive John Duffy labelled a "tough period operationally". Pre-tax profit fell by 16.1% to £7.4 million.

Retail sales were up 1.7% on the same period in 2019, but the firm's food services operations were down 27.4% overall as they were "adversely impacted by tightening of government restrictions towards the end of the half".

Duffy, who said in the firm's statement that "longer-term, our growth ambitions remain unchanged", told the Standard: "We were very happy with the performance. It was a tough period, but we've been able to do a lot of the things we were hoping to do - operationally we've continued to invest in and improve the business."

The firm, which employs around 3,000 people, said that the "avoidance of a no deal Brexit and the associated trade tariffs removes a significant strategic risk for the group", but warned of "some additional border supply chain consequences to address".

Duffy said: "It has been hard work. It has not settled down yet. It still feels like it's an evolving operation, with more changes legislatively due in the coming months which may not happen exactly as planned and which could make things even trickier.

"We are operating and getting our products in and out, but our teams are having to do an awful lot more work to achieve that.

"The paperwork was probably the biggest confusion."

The firm, which sells nearly all of its cake in retail, said the "celebration cake market was down" in the period.