Over-icing causes profits slide

A bread and cake firm has been forced to issue a profits warning - because workers were too generous with the chocolate topping on Yule logs over the Christmas rush, it has emerged.

The problem began when the Finsbury Food Group took on 250 temporary staff to work at its Memory Lane Cakes factory in Cardiff, in order to handle the extra demand for its Yule logs and Christmas cakes.

But the inexperienced workers were too free with ingredients which contributed to more waste and slower production.

And on Friday, Finsbury said inefficiency and rising raw material costs would cause "a substantial reduction in forecast profitability" in the six months to December 31.

"Without putting too fine a point on it, you end up with a lot of teenage males who are less dainty than our more mature staff," said John Lomer, director of Memory Lane's parent group Finsbury Foods.

You can appreciate if we're making some of our cakes at literally thousands an hour, if you over scale by a gram a cake you can give away a lot of profit. MD Phil Batchelor

The extra workers helped around 700 permanent workers at the factory - which supplies cakes to major supermarkets throughout the UK - to cope with almost 24-hour seasonal production.

Memory Lane Managing Director Phil Batchelor said: "If they don't have enough time to learn then they can make mistakes, maybe giving too much product to the end consumer.

"You can appreciate if we're making some of our cakes at literally thousands an hour, if you over scale by a gram a cake you can give away a lot of profit."

Staff said they are now trying to sort out staffing problems within plenty of time of next Christmas.