Rathbones Bakeries was a bakery founded in 1893, in Wigan, Lancashire. By 1997 it was owned by Greencore, through that company's purchase of Kears Group[1] Two years later, Kears Group rebranded itself as Rathbones.[2]
Kears was bought from Greencore by Finedon Mill of Northampton, for £20.6 million in April 2004,[3][4] a year in which it had sales of £100 million, with customers including Morrisons and Tesco.[5] Following a fire the company went into receivership, with part of its operation sold to Warburtons and parts to Morrisons in 2005.[5][6]