Sales growth has accelerated at Bonds of London as its range of humbugs, bon bons and sour sweets and jellies increase in popularity.
The historic brand, founded in 1895, has recently been acquired by a UK wholesaler of US food, Innovative Bites, in a multimillion-pound deal.
Bonds recorded a 20.4% jump in revenues to £18.7m in the year to 31 December 2015, which the newly filed accounts said was another year of “outstanding growth”. It follows an almost 16% jump in sales in 2014.
Pre-tax profits also more than doubled to £846k, despite being hit by £168k related to redundancy and relocation costs as the business moved to a larger factory in Nottinghamshire. EBITDA, which shows profitability at an underlying level before interest, tax and other charges, rose 54% to £1.1m.
“The excellent performance was achieved against the backdrop of our investment into relocating the entire operation to new, 100% larger premises which was a disruptive experience,” the business review in the accounts said. “This created some inefficiencies and lost profits in the year.
“Notwithstanding this, the Bonds team take much credit in planning and implementing the move so efficiently whilst maintaining full supply to our customers.”
Bonds invested in additional weighing and bagging capacity in 2015, with further capacity coming on stream this year. To support the business’ entry into producing bespoke seasonal gifting lines for retailers such as Co-op, Wilco, Spar and Poundland, new packing bands have been installed to improve productivity, the accounts added.
In April, the business revealed it had been bought by Middlesex-based Innovative Bites, which imports US food and drink brands such as Hostess, Warheads, Cookie Dough Bites and Mega Marshmallows. Innovative Bites carries more than 1,400 lines and said the deal was the first step in a strategy to become the UK’s leading confectionery supplier, with combined turnover expected to exceed £50m this year.
Vishal Madhu, MD of Innovative Bites, said: “2015 was a particularly good year for Bonds of London. Revenue growth was largely driven by sales of price marked packs to our key customers combined with a strong, bespoke seasonal offering. The business’s own-label products also contributed to the financial success of last year, popular with the multiple retailers.”
He added: “Last year Bonds of London benefitted significantly from the additional space afforded by its new premises, as well as new machinery and an expanded team. The first quarter of 2016 has got off to an excellent start – we are trading in line with our ambitious budget forecast and are showing double-digit growth on 2015 for the same period.”
Bonds started making handmade sweets 120 years ago and still uses many of the original recipes today in its 450 products, which include jars and traditional bags supplied to major multiples and independent retailers.
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