An upmarket grocer favoured by Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds has been lifted by strong demand during the pandemic.
Sales at Daylesford Organic, run by Carole Bamford, the wife of JCB billionaire Lord Bamford, soared 27 per cent to £43.1 million as orders via its online delivery arm almost quadrupled.
The figures for the year to March were achieved despite the cancellation of events, and the closure of its cafes and cookery school in the first lockdown.
In demand: Lady Bamford’s firm Daylesford Organic is popular with the PM and his fiancee
Yet despite the ‘extremely challenging year’ the farm shops remained open, while online orders and home deliveries soared. The firm said: ‘We are fortunate to have our own farms and production unit. Many of our chefs or cookery school teachers were deployed to produce meals and soups, for which demand surged.’
It emerged in March that the Prime Minister and his partner had received a rumoured £12,500 of gourmet deliveries from Daylesford during lockdown, said to include about 30 giant boxes of shopping and up to 100 prepared meals.
This month, the company launched a new garden retail space at its flagship site in Gloucestershire.
It said that it now envisaged that sales in this financial year would grow by 16 per cent.
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