Woodhead Bakery saved from administration

By Ben Bouckley

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags United kingdom Wheat Baker

Woodhead Bakery saved from administration
The administrator of Morrisons supplier Woodhead Bakery has sold the business to two separate buyers, after splitting it into two parts.

Woodhead originally went into administration on March 29, with 30 of its 310 staff made redundant; the company has a £9m turnover and a factory in Scarborough; it also supplies 30 bakery shops.

Sheffield-based administrator The P&A Partnership secured the sale on Saturday, which will involve 280 new jobs being transferred to new owners Bakery Products (part of Haldane Retail Group) and Scarborough-based bakers Coopland & Sons.

The business has continued to trade since entering administration: Bakery Products has bought the factory and 11 shops, while Coopland & Sons has bought 18 shops in a separate deal. One shop in Redcar has closed.

Interest despite gloom

Joint administrator Christopher White said: “We were pleased with the level of interest generated … and are proud to have achieved successful sales of the factory and 29 shops as going concerns.

“Our thanks go to all the employees at Woodhead. It’s a credit to them that they carried on working with the administrators throughout these challenging last few weeks.”

White said that, despite gloom in the retail sector – he previously blamed inflation, high wheat costs and tough high street trading for Woodhead’s demise – the sales showed that many businesses still saw opportunities to expand products and markets.

Spiralling sector costs

Woodhead’s woes reflect difficulties for firms active in the UK’s £4.4bn bakery industry (2010 estimate based on Office of National Statistics figures) with input costs “spiralling out of control”​, despite the UK’s virtual self-sufficiency in wheat.

Research firm Key Note wrote in a recent 2011 report​ on the sector: “Russia’s recent export ban on wheat has forced other countries to look elsewhere for wheat crops, with the UK being a prime location to pick up such trade.

High energy prices had also negatively impacted on producers’ margins in recent months, Key Note said, “as there are only so many costs that manufacturers can feasibly absorb before they must be passed on to the consumer”.

Related topics Bakery

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1 comment

Woodhead Bakery

Posted by Mark Flynn,

The recession affects all parts of the food industry, from producer to processor, from grocer to consumer. As the players jockey for position, all of them are moving within a system that was already in flux

It is truly challenging times with rising costs (fuel costs, energy and raw material) and lower income streams as a result of the tight reign by the consumer, these coupled with the continual barrage of the need for healthier eating and thus nearly everything nice is bad for you!

It is great news to see the survival of the business with the smartest parties in the transaction responding with strategies that go beyond cost cutting!

Pro Auction extends our best wishes to Coopland & Sons and Haldane for future business.

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