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The bakery chain co-founded by Great British Menu judge Oliver Peyton, Peyton & Byrne Bakeries, has entered administration two years after a previous collapse.

PBB, which runs three London bakeries and a Bermondsey wholesale factory, informed staff last week it had hired administrators to secure the future of the business.

Staff confirmed all of the high street cafés are still trading, as well as the west London facility that produces artisan bread, cakes and pastries.

Discussions are currently taking place between administrators at Leonard Curtis and directors of PBB, the administrator confirmed, at the time of going to press.

PBB appointed Alex Cadwallader and Neil Bennett from the business rescue and recovery firm as administrators on 16 October 2018.

The administration comes only two years after the wider group Peyton & Byrne entered administration itself, after losing profitable catering contracts at Kew Gardens and the British Library.

The bakery arm and catering businesses split apart as part of a rescue deal, with food service giant Sodexo purchasing the latter business.

The bakery arm was purchased by the newly formed Peyton & Byrne Bakeries company, led by the Peyton family.

During the restructuring, renowned restauranteur Oliver Peyton is understood to have remained at the spun-off catering business he co-founded in 2005, along with 260 staff.

Read the full story later this morning on thegrocer.co.uk/finance later this morning.

Morning update

Under pressure butchery group Crawshaw (CRAW) has update the market on a possible restructuring plan this morning.

A short release says the board of Crawshaw “notes the recent media speculation regarding a potential financial restructuring and equity fundraising”.

It says, following the completion of a strategic review designed to restore growth and profitability, it is considering “a number of remedial actions to address the key issues it has identified, which may include raising additional funding through an equity capital raising”.

“No decision has yet been made by the board on these matters and the company will update the market in due course.”

At its interim results on 26 September, Crawshaw said it would scale back its high street operations and launch an e-commerce business as part of its turnaround plan.

In The Grocer this week, Popsicle startup Pops has reached out to the crowd for £400k for working capital after rapid growth in 2018, Tesco-own One Stop records 5% like for like annual growth as own label investment pays off and the decline of traditional black tea hits performance at Tetley owner Tata Global Beverages.

Check out thegrocer.co.uk/finance later this morning for full details.

On the markets this morning, the FTSE 100 has sunk 1.2% to 6,921.5pts as global stocks continue to come under pressure.

Amongst those worst hit are Ocado (OCDO), down 4.8% to 784.4p, McBride (MCB), down 4.4% to 132p, Glanbia (GLB), down 2.3% to €14.41, Just Eat (JE), down 2.2% to 594.4p and FeverTree (FEVR), down 1.9% to 2,717.1p.

The few risers include Hotel Chocolat (HOTC), up 2.9% to 266.5p and Majestic Wine (WINE), up 1% to 388p.

Yesterday in the City

The FTSE 100 recovered from a sharp early fall yesterday to bounce back above 7,000pts after ending the day up 0.6% to 7,004.1pts.

A 0.5% fall in the value of the pound against the dollar back to US$1.282 boosted shares in US-focussed FTSE groups and helped the index recover from a new seven month low set in early trading.

Strong risers included tobacco firms Imperial Brands (IMB) and British American Tobacco (BATS), up 3.7% to 2,743.5p and 2.3% to 3,608p respectively, Compass Group (CPG) rose 2.6% to 1,543p and Unilever (ULVR) was up 1.5% to 4,237.5p.

Other risers yesterday included Ocado (OCD), recovering from a sharp fall earlier in the week to regain a further 2.8% to 823.6p, B&M European Value Retail (BME) up 2.2% to 403.9p, Morrisons (MRW), up 1.8% to 255p and Sainsbury’s (SBRY), up 1.8% to 310.5p.

Also on the up were Marston’s (MARS), up 2.3% to 99.5p and McBride (MCB), up 2.2% to 138p.

The day’s few UK fallers included convenience group McColl’s (MCLS), down 3.2% to 122p, Majestic Wine (WINE), down 3.2% to 384p, Glanbia (GLB), down 1.3% to €14.75 and Cranswick (CWK), down 1.2% to 2,882p.

The biggest fmcg sector news yesterday was away from the UK, where the world’s largest brewer AB InBev (ABI) saw 11.6% wiped off its share price after cutting its dividend by 50% and underperforming third quarter growth and profit expectations.

Coca-Cola European Partners (CCE) fell 1.8% to US$43.53 yesterday after its third quarter revenues increased 4.5% on the comparable currency neutral basis.

Amazon jumped 6.6% to $1,782.17 after announcing that revenues rose by 29.3% in the three months to the end of September, but fell back 7.4% in after hours trading as investors absorbed the results.

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