​City snapshot: Cake Box to buy Ambala Foods with £7m of new shares

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Cake Box has agreed to buy Asian sweets manufacturer Ambala Foods for £22m.

Ambala is a family-run manufacturer and retailer of Asian sweets operating 22 stores around the country.

Cake Box, the UK’s largest franchise retailer of fresh cakes, said the deal consisted of £16m for Ambala itself and £6m for its manufacturing facility in Welwyn Garden City.

It will be funded by topping up the company’s cash reserves with a mix of new shares worth £7m and loans worth £15m.

Full story here.

Morning update

Applied Nutrition has announced a new relationship with Holland & Barrett which will see the retailer sell more of its products.

Under a new joint business plan, Holland & Barrett will increase distribution of currently listed products and will take additional products in both new and existing categories.

In addition, Holland & Barrett will get early access to new products. The first order under the plan was received this month and included the new Coleen Rooney range, which will be available in 500 stores.

“This agreement has the potential to increase the revenue contribution from one of the group’s largest customers threefold when comparing FY24 to FY26 spend,” Applied Nutrition said.

The company added it has also secured three new listings with major retailers.

According to Wayne Brown at Panmure Liberum, “confidence in forecasts should most certainly rise following this update”.

“As a B2B model, visibility on the order book can be relatively low versus a DTC model so updates providing colour can bolster confidence considerably.”