In July Wirral bakery giant Baker & Baker reported a rise in annual sales to £540m but accounts just filed on Companies House also reveal pre-tax losses widening to £21.5m. Tony McDonough reports
Merseyside bakery giant Baker & Baker has reported widening pre-tax losses just weeks after reporting a rise in sales.
In late July the Wirral headquartered firm, which has operations across Europe, reported a small rise in sales for the 12 months to December 31, 2024 to £540m. During the year it launched a number of new products.
Now the company has posted its full accounts on Companies House and they show pre-tax losses for the year widening to £21.5m from £7.7m in 2023. It reports in euros and LBN has converted to sterling based on current exchange rates.
However the company had already revealed in its July press release that its performance had been impacted by some one-off, non-underlying items incurred due to restructuring activities and divestments that do not reflect the underlying profitability of the group.
According to the account these items include a £17m write-off relating to rent receivable from a sub-lease held by the group. In 2024 the tenant entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement and is not able to continue with the lease.
Baker & Baker is one of Liverpool city region’s biggest private sector employers, with around 650 people working at its production plant in Bromborough. Until April 2021 it was a division of US-based CSM Ingredients but now operates as an independent business.
It employs a total of 2,500 people at 12 European sites including Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany and Belgium.
As one of Europe’s leading suppliers of bakery products, it produces donuts, muffins, brownies, cookies, cakes, speciality breads and viennoiserie categories.
During 2024 the company invested just over £12m in its European operations. These included a significant investment at the Delmenhorst site in Germany to improve the management and filtration of palm oil across the site’s doughnut lines.
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At the Bradford site, a new chocolate system was installed, allowing the facility to diversify its product offering.
This paved the way for the launch of three new products into continental Europe – a Milka chocolate cluster, Milka cookies and a Milka chocolate topped brownie. This product range has already seen strong initial growth in France during the first half of 2025.
In the last few days the business has also revealed it has received approval from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) for its near and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets.
This validation of Baker & Baker’s targets represents a significant milestone in the group’s climate efforts and lays out a clear timeline for the business to eliminate carbon emissions from its manufacturing operations and value chain.
It has committed to achieve net-zero (net zero greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain) by 2040, in line with the 1.5°C science-based pathway.