Bakery sales rise

Lees Foods Ltd, owners of Lees of Scotland and The Waverley Bakery has announced its year end results to 31 December 2013.

Sales for the group rose by 21.5 per cent to £26.3m (2012: £21.6m) with profit before tax rising to £1.4m (2012: £1.2m).

Clive Miquel, chief executive comments: “The Group performed exceptionally well during 2013 and I’m pleased to report that the increase in sales has been largely down to the continued growth of Lees snowballs and Lees teacakes.”

“The fine weather during July and August last year contributed to a significant uplift in sales of Carousel ice-cream cones and wafers, which continued the sales development at the Waverley bakery.

“Trading to date in 2014 has been encouraging and we have consolidated upon the sales growth achieved last year. Our challenge now is to maintain margins at a time when there is some volatility in commodity prices, especially in coconut and chocolate.

“Looking ahead there are a number of developments in the pipeline. We are investing over £1.7m in the Lees factory at Coatbridge over the next six months to add a new modern production line to manufacture our snowballs and teacakes, which in addition to being more efficient will allow us to focus on maintaining high product quality.

“In October we will be re-launching the Lees range of confectionery bars, with new impactful designs. This will include an evolutionary new design for the Lees Macaroon bar.

“While Lees continues to have strong sales in Scotland, where it employs over 300 staff, a significant percentage of Lees UK sales are south of the border.

“As reported in the company’s annual accounts, we believe that in the event of Scotland becoming independent, and in the absence of a currency union, Lees could be disadvantaged in its dealings with its major UK customers.”