A popular Grantham gingerbread business has entered voluntary liquidation.
According to The Gazette, The Larder Co (UK) Ltd, trading as Hawkens Gingerbread, passed resolutions to wind up the company voluntarily on March 4.
The notice says the company’s registered office and principal trading address were both listed as 28 London Road, Grantham.
Grantham MP Gareth Davies meets Alastair Hawken at Hawkens Gingerbread in London Road, Grantham.
Freddy Khalastchi and Giuseppe Parla, of Menzies LLP, were appointed joint liquidators.
Companies House documents show the appointment was made by creditors, while a statement of affairs signed by director Alastair Neil Hawken estimated a total deficiency of £146,206.43.
The document listed £102,503.11 in unsecured creditors, including £58,849.71 owed to 25 trade and expense creditors, £9,037.62 to eight employees, and £34,615.78 to four banks or institutions.
It separately listed eight employees as preferential creditors owed £8,087.93.
Separately, Purple Foods Ltd, another company connected to Alastair, is listed by Companies House as active but with an active proposal to strike off.
Its accounts and confirmation statement are overdue, while a First Gazette Notice published on April 21 says the company will be struck off and dissolved unless cause is shown to the contrary.
The liquidation follows several years in which Hawkens Gingerbread publicised growth plans, export opportunities and work to cultivate ginger commercially in the UK.
Alastair launched the business in Grantham in 2009, and previous reports said it was producing about 2,000 gingerbread products a day, with stockists including Selfridges and National Trust shops.
In March 2025, he told LincsOnline that the business had secured a potential $500,000 export deal with TJ Maxx, targeting Australia, the USA and Canada, but said it faced questions over how to fund the scaling-up of production.
Later that year, the company said it had successfully grown ginger commercially in hydroponic polytunnels.
It was planned to use the crop in Britain’s first completely homegrown gingerbread.
Alastair was approached for a comment but declined to do so.
