Warburtons mulls new product range

WARBURTONS could soon diversify its product range outside bread making, its chairman said last night.

Jonathan Warburton, who runs the 130-year old family-owned business with his cousins Brett and Ross, said the company was considering taking “the best of the brand” into another product category, adding that the connotations of ‘family’ is one of the brand’s key strengths.

“We have a couple of ideas at the moment about taking the best of the brand and taking it into another category.

“You could argue that if the brand is about family, Warburtons could make something in that area,” he said giving baby food as a hypothetical example.

But he added that the company had a strong policy of sticking to core British products and that Warbutons is a “very  traditional, very northern” brand.

“We are incredibly focussed about what we allow the brand to do,” he said.

“We do make 1 million packets of crumpets a week but if we suddenly started selling ciabatta, people would say ‘they are getting above themselves’”.

The company, which has a turnover of just over £500m and employs 5,000 people, saw revenue grow by 10% last year.

Mr Warburton wants to grow the company’s UK-wide market share from 25% to 35% in the next two years.

But he added the company was cautious about getting too big, pointing to Tesco which he said is seeing people “turning off” the brand.

“I know the Tesco board and I know it worries them enormously about how they get over this. If something gets just too big people get complacent about things. They work incredibly hard to keep themselves relevant in today’s world.

“For Warburtons it’s keeping ourselves as humble and as down to earth with our feet as firmly on the ground as we possibly can.”

He called the big supermarkets “a challenging bunch” but added that they find dealing with a large family business more difficult than big Plcs.

“We don’t have the three-month timescale reporting wise that they do. We report with a three to five year strategy. Standing up to them is crucial but you can only stand up to them if you maintain a balance in the relationship.”

But despite such tribulations, Mr Warburton is not ready to give it all up and sell out just yet.

“Everybody has their price but if you run a successful business you have an enormous privilege. And just at the moment I wouldn’t know what to do with the money anyway.

“We’ve been very clear to anyone that’s every approached, us, not now. I’m 51, at 61, maybe.”

Mr Warburton was speaking to an audience of MBA students and business people at Manchester Business School as part of its Vital Topics lecture series.