The challenge
In 2020, Finsbury initiated its Operating Brilliance Program following a period of sustained acquisition. Over the previous 13 years, the company had acquired multiple businesses with varying levels of operational maturity. There was now a real requirement and desire from the Finsbury team to leverage its business footprint to drive step change performance and protect itself from challenging external environment conditions. Additionally, a strategic transition from public to private equity ownership created significant opportunity to develop a robust platform that could support and scale growth. While the existing improvement program had driven some positive changes, it remained largely project-based rather than fully integrated. Furthermore, the focus had been predominantly on manufacturing excellence, leaving other areas of the business with significant room for improvement.
To address these strategic challenges, Finsbury developed a comprehensive approach centered around three critical focus areas:
- Maturity-Led Approach: Implementation of a consistent excellence system across the group with clear success metrics
- Internal Capability Building: Development of teams, through coaching, to deliver performance improvements and scale with business growth
- Sustainable Cost Reduction: Implementation of year-on-year cost reduction strategies to satisfy both internal and external stakeholders
Finsbury Food Group stands as one of the UK’s largest specialty bakery groups, with a diverse portfolio encompassing bread, morning goods, and cakes. Operating across ten locations in the UK and Europe—including manufacturing sites in Poland and a sales and distribution business in France—the company serves premium retailer brands and produces licensed products for major brands like Mars and Disney.
The solution
“We realized very quickly and clearly that in order to successfully deliver this strategy, we needed the right partner to support us with this, and this is where CCi came in,”
Lucy Wills, COO
Finsbury partnered with CCi to implement CCi TRACC, a comprehensive solution that aligned with their strategic goals. The partnership provided a consistent improvement approach across the organization while maintaining a strong focus on people and capability development. Additionally, it established a structured system for cost reduction that could be implemented systematically across the business.
The implementation followed a two-phase approach:
- Phase 1: Rapid Deployment
The initial phase consisted of a 12-week focused improvement period during which the team implemented robust governance structures and drove team engagement throughout the organization. This phase included the initial deployment of the leading and managing change TRACC methodology. - Phase 2: TRACC Rollout
The second phase involved implementing foundational TRACCs across both supply chain and manufacturing operations. The team conducted comprehensive gap assessments against best practice and lean principles, while also implementing a value chain alignment assessment. This phase included the launch of pilot programs in areas where performance had been particularly challenging.
Results
The transformation program has driven significant, measurable improvements across the business, enhancing operational efficiency, financial performance, and employee engagement.
12.5% increase in TRACC CI Maturity (from 1.2 to 1.35)
>30% above target in first-year fiscal benefits
>1.5% incremental cost savings projected over 4 years
10% reduction in employee turnover
Improved employee engagement and enhanced talent pipeline
Next Steps
Finsbury has outlined several key priorities to ensure continued transformation success. The company is working to transition from an expert-led to a leadership-led program execution model, supported by robust governance structures. They are focused on leveraging the program to deliver measurable improvements across key metrics throughout the organization. The implementation of best practices will be standardized consistently across the group structure. Additionally, the company remains committed to driving team engagement and empowerment as core elements of their continuous improvement strategy.
From our clients
“We need to have a set of standards that we’re operating to, that we’re continually progressing towards world class and the CCi TRACC platform allows you to actually achieve that.”
From our clients
“Working with CCi has been a really refreshing experience. Everyone that has contributed so far to making our program a success, has become a partner to our business. There’s no differentiation between Finsbury people and CCi people involved in the program. CCi have brought knowledge, expertise and a high degree of capability to our excellence approach.”
From our clients
“Finsbury was able to accelerate the deployment of its operational excellence program much faster than it originally planned, by rolling out to 30% more of its portfolio than initially forecasted in the first year. It was also able to begin coaching people and teams to identify and drive performance improvements ahead of schedule.”
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