Food ingredients firm says turbulent period is now behind it
Liverpool-based bakery ingredients firm Real Good Food said it has emerged from a turbulent period and will start to repay shareholder loans as soon as it is able.
Ahead of its annual general meeting in London this morning, the firm provided a trading update.
It said non-executive chairman Mike Holt will make the following statement: “Trading in the new financial year within food ingredients has been very positive leveraging the recent investment in a new manufacturing line which has almost doubled the capacity.
“New business is being secured and Brighter Foods continues to invest in new product development, working closely with its principal customers.
“Meanwhile, trading within cake decoration has been challenging, particularly in the US market.
“However, the board remains confident that the actions being taken to improve customer service levels, product quality and operational efficiencies should deliver sales and margin growth, in markets that are generally flat.
“The board believes that the group is well positioned to make further progress, improving operating profit significantly this year.
“The issues of recent years have largely been resolved.
“Shareholder debt remains high, reflecting the historic issues of the group, but has now stabilised, and has been modestly reduced in recent months.
“The group will continue to seek to repay shareholder loans as soon as cash flow-backed lending becomes available from commercial sources.”
Earlier this month Real Good Food announced that Hugh Cawley had stepped down as chief executive and would leave the business at the end of September following a change in the role of CEO.
In August the business announced it had secured £8.87m in a refinancing package, from Leumi ABL Ltd, which would allow it to repay some of its debt facilities, while earlier in the month it announced annual pre-tax losses of £26.1m, compared with £9.1m the previous year.
In May Real Good Food was fined £450,000 for breaking stock market rules.
