Bakery boss has sights on expansion

Jul 15 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A BUSINESSMAN who stepped in for a third time to keep a North East bakery brand on the shelves now has sole control of the company and is planning for a successful future.

Peter Frankland has formed Hobson Foods to buy the assets of Tindale & Stanton six weeks after it was placed into administration in May.

In 2003 Mr Frankland had been part of a management buyout team that took over the wholesale baker and in February 2005 he helped the business recover from a fire that wrecked its plant in Burnopfield, County Durham.

Now he has formed Hobson Foods to continue the business, which supplies pies and baked goods to wholesalers and supermarkets through its fleet of vans, and exports goods to Spain, under the Tindale & Stanton brand name.

Mr Frankland, who joined the firm in 1988, said: “I was a 22% shareholder in Tindale & Stanton. I managed in this difficult climate to get the funding to take over 100% of the company.

“Sometimes you go with your heart rather than your head. People say, ‘Are you mad?’ but I’ve got absolute confidence in our products.

“We produce a core range of standard products and in this sort of recessionary climate, people want value for money.”

The business has retained the majority of Tindale & Stanton’s customers, although it has actively lost one large client which Mr Frankland said refused to understand that the cost of ingredients and fuel have risen.

He said: “We’re very pleased with the support we’ve had from our customer base. We’ve been very fortunate that the customers have stayed with us.”

Hobson Foods now operates the main Tindale & Stanton production facilities in Burnopfield and its smaller craft bakery in Gateshead, which produces artisan bread and cakes that are sold via the company’s van deliveries.

Almost 150 jobs were shed when the business was taken over but nearly 160 people were retained and Mr Frankland says that a further six ex-workers have also returned to the new company.

Hobson Foods aims to build up the business again in the future and is looking to introduce new lines. When Tindale & Stanton went into administration, people’s changing tastes and the demand for different types of food were cited as one of the reasons for its problems.

“We are talking to customers to see if there is anything we can produce that they want,” said Mr Frankland.

Now around 25% of the business’s output is vegetarian and the new owner is confident that its core value for money products will be in demand as the economic slowdown eats into shoppers’ grocery budgets.