Cake Box Holdings‘ full-year results for the 52 weeks to 29 March 2026 showed group revenue rising 39.5% to £59.69 million, driven by the first full-year contribution from Ambala Foods and continued organic growth across its core franchise network.
The AIM-listed fresh cream celebration cake retailer, which trades under the ticker CBOX, reported underlying EBITDA up 41.6% to £12.36 million and underlying profit before tax up 22.6% to £8.67 million.
Cake Box Full-Year Results: Ambala Adds Scale
Ambala, acquired for an aggregate consideration of £22 million, contributed £14.14 million in maiden full-year revenue. That compares with £6.5 million in sales and underlying cash profits of £400,000 during its first partial reporting period as part of the group, according to Investors’ Chronicle.
The acquisition details were reported by Hubwise at the time of the deal. The company said integration and operational efficiencies are progressing well.
Core Cake Box revenues, stripping out Ambala, grew 9.3% to £45.86 million. Like-for-like sales rose 4.8%, an acceleration from 3.0% in the prior year. Prior-year group revenue stood at £42.78 million, with gross profit of £22.46 million (up 12.6%) and EBITDA of £7.81 million (up 1.5%), according to Investor Meet Company.
The pace of profit growth in the latest year is markedly faster across most metrics, reflecting the Ambala addition and operating leverage across the enlarged estate.
Store Network Expands to 310 Sites
The group opened 37 stores over the year, taking the total estate to 310. Cake Box contributed 25 new openings to reach 276 locations. Ambala added 12 stores, ahead of its 10-store annual target.
System sales, which capture the full franchise network, jumped 27.7% to £111.27 million.
Online sales grew 19.7% to £22.89 million, with 289,000 new online customers added during the year. The group continued to trade across delivery platforms Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats.
Statutory profit before tax rose 16.5% to £6.86 million, below the underlying figure, with the gap driven by non-underlying items including an impairment of an intangible asset. Net income for the year was £5.22 million, according to MarketScreener.
Underlying earnings per share grew 21.1% to 15.97p.
Cake Box describes itself as the UK’s largest retailer of fresh cream celebration cakes, per its results announcement on FT Markets.
Chief executive Sukh Chamdal said: ‘We delivered a strong performance across the year, with healthy growth in revenue and underlying EBITDA and 37 new stores opened across the Group.’
‘This reflects the disciplined execution of our growth strategy, including store expansion, positive like-for-like sales in our core Cake Box business, and sustained momentum across our multi-channel offering. Customer engagement has been good throughout the year, supported by ongoing investment in digital capability and the strength of our franchise model.’
The Cake Box full-year results will now focus investor attention on whether Ambala’s store rollout can sustain its above-target opening pace and whether the like-for-like acceleration extends into the new financial year.
