- Cooks the Bakery
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Cooks the Bakery is a specialist retail bakery chain of hot food, sandwiches and coffee, based in Solihull, in the West Midlands, England. As of 2010, they have approximately 65 shops.
Contents
Three Cooks
Three Cooks was the name given to a trio of high street bakers formerly trading as Clarks Bakery, Stephen's Bakery and Wimbush the Bakers.
It was based in Solihull, and taken over by Rank Hovis McDougall and expanded into a 255 retail bakery and then sandwich chain business. In 2000, as high street trends changed, it sold the freeholds of the various retail premises.
Due to financial difficulties arising from a downturn in high street trading conditions, in November 2006 the chain went into administration with a footprint of 158 shops, under the legal control of Tenon Group[1] Tenon immediately closed 37 loss-making sites, with around 250 job losses.[2]
Chairman Geoff Peppiatt managed to save 900 jobs, leading a purchase of 121 of the former Three Cooks shops, under the new brand Cooks the Bakery. The chain has since refurbished a number of existing Three Cooks stores to the new brand, although a number of shops remain branded Three Cooks. Geoff explained what had caused the problems. [3] He told British Baker] the simple formula - revenue minus costs equals profits - was not working in the high street baker's favour. He said: "There is now lower footfall on the high street, which means fewer sales; people are shopping more in retail parks and supermarkets. Even Greggs' latest like-for-like sales are only up 0.2% and most companies will have seen like-for-like declines of 5% and worse - maybe 9-11% - over the summer period." Peppiatt said retail rents kept rising, as landlords priced lower-margin operations off the high street, whereas businesses which sold higher-margin products, such as mobile phones, could afford to move in. "Then there are the other things you can slice off your profit-and-loss account, such as food costs, wages, distribution, and other occupancy costs including business rates, water rates, electricity and service charges. These are all rising above the rate of inflation," he added.
Present day
Peppiatt has since left the business, which is now run by Richard Prime (Managing Director) and Steven Greaves (Director). Cooks the Bakery is no longer involved in Van Delivery or Schools Catering.[4]
The company currently operates 80 shops.
References
- ^ "Three Cooks' management make rescue bid". Bakery Info. November 10, 2006. http://www.bakeryinfo.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/1106/Three_Cooks__management_make_rescue_bid.html. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
- ^ "Three Cooks: 250 jobs to go". Express & Star. November 7, 2006. http://www.expressandstar.com/latest/2006/11/07/three-cooks-250-jobs-to-go/. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
- ^ "%20Three%20Cooks:%20250%20jobs%20to%20go". Express%20&%20Star. November%207,%202006. http://www.expressandstar.com/latest/2006/11/07/three-cooks-250-jobs-to-go/. Retrieved July%2018,%202010.
- ^ "Corporate Information". Cooks the Bakery. http://www.cooksthebakery.com/corp.html. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
External links
Categories:- Bakeries of the United Kingdom
- Solihull
- Companies based in the West Midlands (county)
- United Kingdom company stubs
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