Member Article

Bakery cooks up growth with £600k bank investment

A fleet of specialist delivery fans costing £600,000 has been acquired by a south Yorkshire bakery after gaining backing from Yorkshire Bank.

The six new ‘Bap Vans’, which play the Batman theme, deliver hot and cold food to offices and businesses across south and west Yorkshire, north Lincolnshire and north Nottinghamshire, have been bought by Cooplands (Doncaster) Ltd.

Yorkshire Bank’s Business and Private Banking Centre in Doncaster provided £250,000 of asset finance.

The new vehicles take the total size of the fleet to 25, making it one of the largest of its kind in the country. A total of six new jobs are also being created.

Family business Cooplands (Doncaster) Ltd, which has 85 shops across the region, was founded in 1932 in Hallgate, Doncaster, by Mrs Alice Jenkinson. Alice’s son, David Jenkinson remains honorary president of the business.

Chris Peck, chairman of Cooplands, said: “Busy working people do not always have time to seek out quality food for their lunch break and so, in partnership with Yorkshire Bank, we are rapidly expanding our fleet of Bap Vans taking quality, competitively-priced food to their doorsteps.

“Sales through our Bap Van fleet are increasing by £1.7m a year. This is an important channel through which we can grow at a time when the high street is proving extremely tough to retain or grow sales.

Cooplands, which also makes a wide range of savoury and sweet buns, pasties, rolls and cakes, currently has 650 staff and an £18m turnover.

Richard Boor, senior partner at Yorkshire Bank’s Business and Private Banking Centre in Doncaster, said: “Cooplands is expanding through innovation both in the quality and types of foods it offers and its way of getting its products to customers.

“These customers know they have a brand they can rely on at a time when the quality of some products has been called into question.’’

Yorkshire Bank has introduced a series of measures designed to help growing businesses – including a £1billion “Business Expansion Fund” and switching package to assist businesses transferring their banking facilities.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .