BAKER Inter Link Foods has got its fingers in several pies.

Since its foundation in 1994, the Lanca- shire-based company has busily acquired seven additional manufacturers of specialist pastries, including Soreen in Urmston for '8.4m, Cakes for the Connoisseur for '1.3m and Hoppers Farmhouse Bakery Holdings in Kent for a princely '5m.

As executive chairman and founder Alwin Thompson tells it, Inter Link came about almost by chance. After selling shares in his own first venture, fitness equipment importer Slim Gym, in 1986, Alwin had a chance meeting in his golf club.

A fellow member asked him to help turn his bakery around, and Country Fitness Foods was born.

It has gone from strength to strength since a re-brand as Inter Link Foods in 1994. With additional sites in Oldham and Heywood, it occupies third position in an industry worth almost '2bn.

The cake manufacturer turns over '69.6m, has made deals with Disney to put animation favourites on its cakes, and is listed on the AIM Market, where it was named Company of the Year in 2001.

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