The Cornish Bakery, a national award-winning bakery - with a shop in Falmouth on Arwenack Street has secured £1 million through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) to support it in reopening its 45 bakeries and help to protect the company's future.

The business, which has 400 employees across 45 bakeries closed its doors to customers on 23rd March and had to furlough all but seven of the team.

Steve Grocutt, the founder of The Cornish Bakery, said:

"The loan provided by Clydesdale Bank will allow us to quickly reintroduce cash flow into the business to allow us to become operational again.

"The team at the bank was fully supportive in making sure we could not only work towards reopening our 45 bakeries up and down the country as quickly as was possible, but we will also be able to use this loan to future-proof the business by launching new digital revenue streams.

"Without the financial support coming to us as quickly as it did, we could be hit harder should a second peak of the virus hit the country. This funding will not only help us to survive but hopefully thrive.

"Our hopes now are to not only to return the business to normal but hopefully grow the business through these new revenue streams and in time through acquisition. We are incredibly positive about the future of the business and look forward to welcoming our staff and customers back to the bakeries."

The loan will allow the business to ensure there is adequate cash flow to be able to reopen doors to customers over the coming weeks.

The funding will also enable The Cornish Bakery to introduce new health and safety procedures, including providing staff with protective clothing – such as masks and visors – and introducing new Perspex screens around all customer counters.

By the end of June, the bakery hopes to unfurlough all its staff and reopen each one of its sites (excluding those based at the National Exhibition Centre) without having to make any redundancies – and is even looking to make additional hires to see it through the summer season.

The CBILS funding has also given The Cornish Bakery opportunity to pivot its strategy to diversify into launching both online mail order and click and collect service to future proof it should it ever be forced to close its physical sites again.

Stewart Linnane, relationship manager at Clydesdale Bank, added:

"We are proud to be able to support The Cornish Bakery in helping to secure that positive future."