FERMANAGH food manufacturer Crust & Crumb saw its revenues jump by almost 20 per cent last year, as the company continued its expansion with a new acquisition.
Launched in 2011 by Mary McCaffrey, Crust & Crumb has grown into the island of Ireland’s largest manufacturer of ambient, chilled, frozen flatbread and garlic bread products.
It makes around three million units per week.
The Derrylin-based bakery makes pizzas, wraps and speciality breads for the likes of Tesco and Lidl.
New accounts published by Companies House show the food manufacturer’s revenue jumped by around £10 million (19.4 per cent) to £60.5m for the year ending June 30 2022.
But rising costs ate into Crust & Crumb’s profit margin, with its pre-tax profit dropping from £3.8m in 2021 to £1.3m last year.
Cost of sales rose 26 per cent in the year to June 2022, rising from £41.8m to £52.7m.
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Administration and distribution costs also increased by £1.2m year-on-year to £6.4m.
But the company is set for further growth in 2023 following the recent acquisition of Evron Foods’ Craigavon-based operation.
The factory, which makes garlic bread and garlic baguettes, was bought from US food service supplier, Bama in September 2022.
It came less than two years after the Oklahoma-based company bought Evron in November 2020.
The operation, based in the Carn Industrial Estate, has now been rebranded as Crust & Crumb Breads.
It joined the company's main base of operations in Derrylin, and its Ballyconnell factory, located just across the border in Co Cavan.
The latest accounts for Crust & Crumb reveal the manufacturer’s workforce dropped from 296 to 259 prior to the Evron acquisition.
The reduction was mostly on the production side.
While the UK remains the biggest market for Crust & Crumb, with £44m in sales last year, its sales to the rest of the world almost doubled in 2022 to £16.4m.
Sales to the rest of world accounted for 27 per cent of Crust & Crumb’s revenue in 2022, up from 17 per cent in 2021.
