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The Real Good Food Company no longer a curate's egg

Published: 06:50 26 Jun 2013 EDT

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Full-year results from The Real Good Food Company (LON:RGD) reveal a company where every part of the business is now pulling its weight.

The group, which owns Napier Brown (Europe's biggest non-refining sugar distributor), as well as Renshaw and R&W Scott (bakery ingredients), Garrett Ingredients (dairy ingredients) and Haydens Bakery (patisserie and desserts), said all trading divisions have positive underlying earnings (EBITDA) now that Haydens and R&W Scott have moved back into the black.

Speaking to Proactive Investors, executive chairman Pietr Totté said Real Good Food is now a growth story, not a turnaround situation, and that he has every single business unit “where I want them”.

Having worked hard on changing the culture of the group, he believes the passion and enthusiasm he wants to see has now filtered through right to the shop floor, and this leaves the group well placed “to grow both the top line and bottom line”.

He singled out the performance of Haydens as “the year’s big success”.

“I am really pleased about Haydens, we’ve really seen it through. Customers are responding, the products are good, demand is up. We were always working with Waitrose as the main customer there, then secondly Marks & Spencer. That is now a much wider base and there is a lot of interest in the marketplace,” Totté said.

He also enthused about the group’s smallest business, R&W Scott, which moved into profit after a new managing director, John Easton, rationalised the business, ensuring the Scottish business has a sound base on which to build.

“What is more important, he’s got his brand new range of products almost completed now, and, I would say, it is increasing as we speak. He is reinforcing, particularly his sales force,” Totté revealed.

As for the sugar business, which is “over half the business”, Totté said the new site at Stallinborough, next to the deep sea port of Immingham, the UK's largest port by tonnage, should be in “full swing” by Christmas time.

Totté said this is a crucial development for the company, as the site will receive bulk sugar, and allow the company to perform quality checks before the sugar is transferred into road tankers for onward distribution, either to the company’s own packing or manufacturing sites, or directly to third party customers.

“It’s a big investment, and a major plus point for us. It basically makes us more efficient; we can bring more sugars in, in an efficient manner, and it has a fantastic quality control mechanism in there as well, that customers are extremely keen on.”

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