Tapping into the ever-growing cake making and decorating sector, ingredients specialist Real Good Food PLC is growing its export business across the Atlantic.
It has created a new subsidiary Renshaw US Inc – trading as Renshaw Americas – to focus on the American market, securing a five year lease on a giant warehouse in Rockaway, New Jersey, close to the port of Newark.
The team will initially sell cake decorating products across the USA and Canada and eventually across the rest of the Americas.
The group’s executive chairman Pieter Totté said: “The USA and Canada are very important markets for our cake decorating business.
“It already accounts for around 10% of our overall export sales and by establishing a permanent presence we believe there is scope for future growth and improved margins with operating efficiencies and better supply chain management.
“We can now ship in bulk quantity directly to a storage and distribution facility in an optimal location for onward distribution. This leads to manufacturing efficiencies in our factories in the UK and ultimately better customer service and improved margins.”
Totté said the group was particularly excited about the growth opportunity for sugar paste, as opposed to soft icing, as this market is largely underdeveloped across the Americas.
In a separate move, Real Good Food has also rebranded its Europe division as Renshaw Europe, to reflect the group focus on cake decoration products.
Speaking to Proactive recently, Totté said he was seeing growing interest in all things cake decorating and expected that momentum to continue.
“We do see very, very clearly that the interest in the wider public is going up and up..,” he said.
“It’s actually bigger now than cooking so I think it will go further!” he suggested.
The popularity of a television programme like ‘The Great British Bake-Off’ (which has also been screened in the US) certainly does rub off on the firm, though it’s very difficult to measure, he added
The group has also developed the Renshaw academy in Liverpool, where people can come and learn, for a fee, cake decorating skills.
Shares in Real Good Food today nudged 1.37% higher at 37p each.
Source: Proactive Investors
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Lesnard, who previously worked at Nike, The North Face and Sephora, has a mission to “grow and sustain GODIVA’s position and expertise in the premium chocolate category, leveraging ongoing support from pladis to take GODIVA and its legendary chocolate to new heights.”
