Rathbones Bakeries was a bakery founded in 1893, in Wigan, Lancashire. By 1997 it was owned by Greencore, through that company's purchase of Kears Group[1] Two years later, Kears Group rebranded itself as Rathbones.[2]
Kears was bought from Greencore by Finedon Mill of Northampton, for £20.6 million in April 2004,[3][4] a year in which it had sales of £100 million, with customers including Morrisons and Tesco.[5] Following a fire the company went into receivership, with part of its operation sold to Warburtons and parts to Morrisons in 2005.[5][6]
References
- ^ History Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine from the Greencore website
- ^ Kears Rebranding as Rathbones, a Food Trade Review from December 1, 1999 via HighBeam Research
- ^ Rankine, Kate (4 May 2005). "Morrisons buys failed bakeries". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
- ^ "Bakery company in administration". BBC News. 4 April 2005. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
- ^ a b "Morrisons buys Rathbones bakeries". The Guardian. London. 2005-05-03. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
- ^ "Morrisons buys fire-damaged bakery giant". The Times of London. 3 May 2005. Retrieved 2020-11-14.