Sweet taste of Real Good profits

Liverpool-based Real Good Food, which also provides supermarkets with own-label baking ingredients, hopes to benefit from the trend by rolling out new speciality sugar ranges under the Whitworths banner this autumn.

The group, which made profits of £1.15m in the six months to June 30 against a loss of £1.1m a year earlier, aims to return Whitworths, which was founded in 1886, to its former glory as a sugar brand. The food ingredients part of Whitworths has been owned by a private equity group since 2006.

Elsewhere in the business, its division providing cake ingredients saw sales rise 11 per cent as home baking’s appeal as a family hobby picked up pace.

The Renshaw brand, which has plants at Liverpool and Glasgow, is also planning to expand its range to include cake decorating tools and colours, as well as cake fillings and toppings.

The division, which provides cake manufacturers with items such as macaroon paste and mallows, posted operating profits of £1.1m, up 70 per cent on last year.

The sugar division Napier Brown, which includes Whitworths, made an operating profit of £1.2m compared with break-even a year ago.

Despite heavy increases in commodity costs and its need to find sources of sugar outside of Europe, underlying profits for the group jumped from £600,000 to £2.7m. The group said it had “worked hard” to pass on higher commodity costs.