Chris Ormrod was no stranger to the food industry. His already successful career had involved buying and selling businesses such as Ministry of Cake and The Flavourworks. Having sold his latest business, and ready to ‘go again’, Chris engaged Watersheds to find the next perfect business he could add real value to and, together with a strong second tier management team, accelerate growth.
Watersheds used its experience, expertise and connections to unearth relevant, successful, and growing businesses, and quickly generated a handful of attractive opportunities for Chris to consider. None of these were ‘on his radar’ and all of them were ‘off market’ (not being actively marketed for sale). Having met a couple, one of those businesses really stood out as being the perfect fit.
Bristol based Cakesmiths supplies its range of artisan handmade cakes to independent customers and café chains across the UK, through its unique direct-to-market online platform, priding itself on exciting innovation and limited ‘small batch’ runs. The buyout and investment will allow the management team, led by Managing Director, Simon Harris, and newly appointed CEO Chris, to continue to build on the considerable success to date. This has been made possible through the company’s focus on creating a culture of involved employees, simply making great products.
CEO Chris Ormrod said: “I am looking forward to becoming part of the Cakesmiths team and working with Simon and our new partners at LDC. This is an exciting time for the business. We see strong demand from customers up and down the country and we are developing great tasting products to capitalise on those growth opportunities.”
Simon Harris, Managing Director of Cakesmiths, said: “I’m very pleased to be partnering with an investor that backs our plans to provide more amazing cakes to even more people. Our employees are central to making Cakesmiths a special place to work, and this investment allows us to continue to recruit and grow for the future.”