Duchy Originals profits have jumped by a third to £3m two years after Waitrose became the exclusive distributor of the Prince of Wales’ organic food brand.

The vast majority of this will go to charity while the remainder will be used to a pay back a loan the company took out to cover losses incurred in 2008 and 2009.

Duchy Originals struggled in the wake of the financial crisis, prompting its main customer Waitrose to step in and help in September 2009. The supermarket offered to invest in the brand and pay a royalty to Duchy in exchange for gaining the right to exclusively sell and distribute the products.

“These figures reflect an extremely successful year for Duchy Originals from Waitrose, meaning that we have significantly exceeded our original £1m commitment,” said Waitrose MD Mark Price.

The news comes as Waitrose celebrates a 7.7% jump in sales over the Christmas trading period. The supermarket added that like-for-like sales were up 4.3% between 4 November and 24 December.