UK’s Cornish Bakery to boost outlet growth with Virgin Money funding package

Corning Bakery currently operates 60 outlets across the UK | Photo credit: Cornish Bakery/Virgin Money

Independent bakery café chain Cornish Bakery has received new funding from UK bank, Virgin Money, to support its goal of reaching 100 stores by the end of next year. 
 

Corning Bakery currently operates 60 outlets across the UK, with a strong presence in the southwest counties of Cornwall and Devon. 

In a press release, Virgin Money said Cornish Bakery will use the funding package to open new stores in the East Midlands, the southwest and Nottinghamshire ‘in the near future’. The bakery café chain will also use the funding to refurbish stores in St Ives and across the Lake District to its more premium branding – an upgrade it has been rolling out across its sites since late 2021. 

“We’re on a shared mission to supercharge our growth and to at least double, if not triple, in size in the coming years. We’re building a pioneering brand proposition where our mantra is ‘bakery is the new coffee shop’. We fully appreciate our close working relationship with the Strategic Finance team at Virgin Money and are delighted to work together to continually achieve, and often overachieve, our ambitious objectives,” said Ralf Goad, Finance Director, Cornish Bakery. 

Read related content: “Bakery is the new coffee shop” — Cornish Bakery founder, Steve Grocutt 

Founded in 1994, Cornish Bakery serves coffee supplied by London-based specialty roaster Union Hand Roasted Coffee alongside a premium food menu of pasties, pastries and brunch dishes.  

In May 2024, the bakery café chain appointed Matt Finch as its first Managing Director to lead its bid to ‘double or triple in size’ over the next few years. Finch, a former Commercial Director at UK hotel chain Bourne Leisure, is working alongside Cornish Bakery Founder Steve Grocutt and Head of Acquisitions Raj Manek, who joined the business in September 2023.