The Bart Ingredients Company has reported reduced profits following its move to a new factory over the course of last year.
The Bristol-based food production firm, which supplies herbs and spices to major supermarkets and groceries stores, relocated its operations to a larger, £15m factory at Severn Beach, after outgrowing its previous facility in Bedminster.
According to accounts filed on Companies House, the business made a profit after tax of £550,000 for the financial year to the end of December 2021 - down from around £2m a year earlier.
This was despite turnover continuing to grow by 3% to £41.3m, following a 33% rise in 2020 to £40m in 2020, when the company said people cooked at home more during national Covid-19 lockdowns.
Bosses at the firm said while the third Covid lockdown in the early part of 2021 resulted in increased spend in supermarkets, the overall impact of the pandemic on sales was lower than the previous period.
Operating profit was down to £1.1m from £2.7m in 2020, which it said was driven by additional fixed operating costs of the larger site, with additional costs of running both the new and old sites during the transition.
Bart Ingredients added that it had also invested in new machinery for its new base, securing asset finance of £3.2m to fund the investments.
At the start of last year the company sold leasehold property for £2.2m and leased it back for a 12-month period, with rent receivable of £10,300.
The company said it had a small number of supply chains where materials come from Russia and Ukraine, and sourcing was being moved “wherever feasible”. It added it was reviewing whether ingredients in some of its recipes would need to be replaced, and safety stocks of certain materials were being increased, to mitigate against potential shortages as a result of the war.
Bosses said the free trade agreement between the UK and EU at the end of 2021 had provided more certainty for the company's terms between customers and suppliers in the bloc. The business also established an Irish subsidiary through which it intended to trade through this year.
Formed in Bristol in 1963, Bart Ingredients employs a workforce of around 250 people. The company's board said in its strategic report the move to the larger factory would provide the capacity the business needed for further growth and secure its future.
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