Pension Governance

Several companies within the Group operate defined contribution (DC) pension schemes with one company operating a defined benefit scheme.

The Group’s defined benefit scheme is the Memory Lane Cakes Pension Scheme (“Scheme”) which is a separately administered plan. In June 2025, the trustees of the Scheme agreed terms with a third party provider to buy-in the Scheme’s liabilities. At the buy-in date, all member benefits* were secured in full based on the membership data at that point.

The Group operates two Defined Contribution (DC) pension schemes on behalf of its employees, a contract-based Group personal pension and Master Trust. The Group has put in place a Pension governance committee which works with third-party pension scheme advisers to provide governance oversight of both schemes. Whilst the Master Trust is overseen at provider level by a set of Trustees, the Group also includes this in its ongoing DC Governance process.

The Group’s governance oversight looks to address the standards outlined by the Pensions Regulator’s DC code of practice. The DC code focuses on a set of standards that are related to the requirements of pensions legislation and reflect the regulator’s view of good practice. The committee meets regularly to assess both schemes against these standards. The committee then implements action plans to ensure the Group’s pension schemes continue to provide good quality and good value retirement benefits for members.

* Excluding those arising from the equalisation of guaranteed minimum pensions (GMP) as GMP equalisation is yet to be implemented.