Frank Roberts & Sons based in Cheshire has announced the appointment of Julia Banton as Managing Director to work alongside the family and senior management team to take the business forward.
Julia joined the Bakery in 2022 as Operations Director, after relocating back to the area from Canada. Julia has led the rebuild of the bakeries since the devastating onsite fire in June 2023, she has also managed the relocation of Roberts Biscuits site to Winsford. Julia will be responsible for maintaining Roberts’ commitment to keeping their long-standing reputation for superior quality alive.
Despite the recent difficulties, Frank Roberts & Sons reported sales growth of 8% in its latest financial results (to end of August ‘23), with a turnover of £96 million, employing over 700 people locally. The business now has three centres of excellence, one for Bread at Northwich, one for Specialty Bread and Morning Goods in Derbyshire and a third Biscuit division in Winsford. Products include the well renowned Roberts branded prepack loaves, own label bakery products, own label and branded biscuits and partnerships with major sandwich suppliers.
Julia has over 27 years’ experience in the food industry, with a wealth of experience in both financial and operational capacities. Julia has enjoyed senior roles at companies such as Northern Foods, Nestle and The Kraft Heinz Company in the UK and overseas.
Julia said: “I want to share my expertise and best-in-class practices I have learnt throughout my career and continue to deliver them into the Roberts family business. Roberts is proud to be a fourth generation family-owned business, with over 130 years of baking heritage. This year, as we embark on our biggest ever fully integrated £1.5m marketing campaign, we want to build on our core USPs; our heritage and our quality of products.”
In light of this change, Bill Thurston will assume the position of CEO. Bill will focus on shaping the overall strategic direction of the business for our immediate future. The family shareholders express gratitude for Bill’s support during challenging times and look forward to collaborating with him in this new capacity as we plan for future business growth.
The site in Northwich has benefitted from a multi-million pound cash injection, which has secured the rebuild of their factories and set them up for future growth. Julia comments: “We have been through a tough time over the past 15 months but we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our employees have been phenomenal in adapting their ways of working to continue to deliver our products to our customers. Throughout the process we have managed to retain our headcount, retaining the years of baking expertise within the Roberts business. I feel honoured to have the opportunity to lead the Roberts team.”
Talking us through the ambitions for the Bakery, Julia says “Now that we are fully functional again and made significant upgrades to our manufacturing equipment we can focus on regaining our market share within our Heartland region. Our customers have been very loyal to us and we look forward to developing those relationships further with supply of our core bestselling lines as well as some exciting product innovation. Despite the rebuild, our teams have been busy in the background developing new products including; Tiger loaves and Rolls, a range of healthier breads with grains and seeds as well as returning some of our favourite products which have been out of production. We are excited for the next chapter of growth for Roberts, as we look to growing our distribution points and listings in the near future.”
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