Rachel’s recipe for success has Far Eastern flavour
According to Ms Allen’s husband and business manager, Isaac Allen, Rachel has signed deals in the last seven to eight months in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur along with separate deals in the Middle East in Dubai, Abu Dhabi (two), and Istanbul worth a combined €122,000.
He said: “We are presently working on another deal in Istanbul and one in Hong Kong.”
Mr Allen said that revenues at Rachel Allen’s business increased by 40% last year as the business broke even.
He said that the business will record a further increase in revenues this year and is projecting to return to profit in 2013.
Mr Allen declined to state the revenues or the level of profitability anticipated, but said yesterday: “I’m happy with how the business is performing. It is all going in the right direction.”
He said the business’s bottom line was hit last year through investing in Rachel Allen’s “emerging markets”.
“Rachel is really striking a chord in the likes of Turkey, the Middle East and South-East Asia and a lot of time, money and effort was spent last year developing those markets and that is now paying off.”
He said the move was made to develop new markets for Rachel as “the UK and Irish markets are quite crowded at the moment”.
He said that around 40% of Rachel’s revenues are generated in the UK with 25% to 30% in Ireland.
The popular TV chef has sold almost 3m books worldwide — her Rachel Allen Bake book sold 250,000 copies in the first 10-to-12 weeks alone.
Mr Allen said that Rachel’s TV programmes are being broadcast in 30 countries, and confirmed that the business has recently signed a distribution deal with BBC World that should result in Rachel’s TV shows being shown in more countries.
Mr Allen said that the business is diversifying beyond TV shows and books through the recent launch of Rachel’s cake range.
The most recent accounts for the couple’s main firm, Lehcar Ltd, show that it recorded a loss of €127,107 before exceptional items in 2011 and a note states that the loss “arose primarily due to increases in overhead expenses which is not anticipated to re-occur in 2012”.
