Earnings rise for Park Cakes
CAKE and pastries maker Park Cakes – one of Oldham’s largest employers – saw profits improve last year as it benefited from volatile commodity prices.
The business, which employs around 1,150 staff, makes private label cakes, desserts and pastries for supermarkets.
Accounts for the year to March 30 show the business made a pre-tax loss of £414,000, down from a £3.3m loss, on revenue of £116.8m, down 3.5%.
Operating profit rose to £2.5m from a loss of £687,000 last time, but this was wiped out by interest payments of around £3.7m. Earnings, before, interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were static at £1.5m.
The group’s majority shareholder is Eliot Holdings, which in turn is owned by private equity firm Vision Capital. It backed a buyout of the business from Northern Foods in January 2007.
The accounts show that Park’s ultimate parent company is Eliot Luxembourg Holdco which it paid £2.3m in loan note interest during the year.
In their report the directors said a strong performance in the new product arm, and promotional tie-ups with retailers were crucial to the figures. But margins also improved due to variations in world commodity prices and favourable dairy prices. The fall in sales was blamed on the “mini bites and traybake categories”.
