BGF invests £8.5m in bakery Coopland & Son

Coopland will use the capital to open 30 new shops over the next three years, develop its production facilities and explore potential bolt-ons. It will also boost its sandwich van service, doubling its fleet by 2020.

BGF's funding for Coopland, which saw it acquire a minority stake, follows a £3.5m investment in York-headquartered restaurant and deli chain Filmore & Union, announced in August 2017.

This is BGF's 27th investment in 2017. Its year-end figure is likely to be lower than the 37 deals completed in 2016 but is higher than 2015's 23. It also makes BGF the UK's busiest institutionally backed venture investor of the year.

Company
Founded in 1885, Coopland operates 140 shops, 11 cafes and 28 sandwich vans that are supplied by its three bakeries in Scarborough, Durham and Hull. Coopland's outlets are typically located in shopping parades and high-streets across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the north-east of the UK.

The company employs 1,500 people and in the year to March 2016 generated sales of £42m, and operating profit of around £1.9m.

People
BGF – Barry Jackson, Chris Boyes (investors).
Coopland & Son – Paul Coopland (managing director).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• UK / Ireland
• Consumer
• BGF (Business Growth Fund)