Cake Box
Financial Plan
Liquid capital
The amount you need to secure the necessary loans.
Total investment
Total Investment to launch the business, including initial fees (Not disclosed)
The Concept
- Year of creation
- 2008
The UK's largest franchise retailer of fresh cream egg-free celebration cakes.
Cake Box is the UK’s largest franchise retailer of fresh cream celebration cakes, and every store in the network is owned by a franchisee.
The business began in 2008, when a request from Sukh Chamdal’s daughter for an egg-free fresh cream birthday cake led him to open a single concept store in East London, alongside co-founder Pardip Dass. It listed on AIM in June 2018 with 91 stores. By the close of its 2026 financial year on 29 March, the network had reached 310 locations, made up of 276 Cake Box stores and 34 Ambala, after 37 openings during the year.
System sales rose 27.7% to £111.3 million and group revenue 39.5% to £59.7 million, with like-for-like sales in Cake Box stores up 4.8%. Underlying EBITDA reached £12.4 million. The cakes are egg-free and vegetarian, decorated in store, and can be personalised with a handwritten message while the customer waits.
Why Choose the Franchise Cake Box?
Cake Box owns no stores itself. Franchisees fund the shops while the company runs manufacturing, technology and brand, an arrangement it describes as asset-light and capital-efficient. Product and ingredients come from three central facilities with UK-wide reach, with a £2 million expansion planned at Bradford. Several of the executive directors are former franchisees. Digital sits at group level: online sales grew 19.7% to £22.9 million in 2026, delivery platform sales 46.2% to £6.3 million, and 289,000 new online customers were added, with a new website, app and loyalty scheme in development. Cake Box does not publish its franchise fee or total investment figure. The group is targeting 500 UK locations, 400 Cake Box and 100 Ambala, and has identified 190 sites of remaining white space. It plans 35 openings in 2027 and continues to look at international markets. Ambala, a mithai and gifting brand founded in 1965, was acquired in March 2025 for £22 million and contributed £14.1 million in its first full year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an individual open a Cake Box franchise?
Yes, and the model is built around it. Cake Box owns no stores at all: every one of its 310 locations is franchisee-owned, and several of the company’s executive directors are former franchisees themselves.
How does the Cake Box model work?
Franchisees fund and run the shops while the company handles manufacturing, technology and brand, an arrangement Cake Box describes as asset-light and capital-efficient. Product and ingredients come from three central facilities with UK-wide reach, with a £2 million expansion planned at Bradford. Cakes are egg-free and vegetarian, decorated in store, and can be personalised with a handwritten message while the customer waits.
Why are Cake Box cakes egg-free?
The recipe came from the founder’s own problem. In 2008 Sukh Chamdal could not find an egg-free fresh cream birthday cake for his daughter, and the concept store he opened in East London that year was built around solving it. The egg-free, vegetarian formulation widens the market considerably, covering customers who avoid eggs for dietary or religious reasons, and the brand won PETA’s Vegan Cake of the Year in 2024.
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