Heavy-handed temps fail to put the icing on Lord Saatchi's cake

Inexperienced temps drafted in for the Christmas rush at a cake factory part-owned by Lord Maurice Saatchi, the joint deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, were so generous with toppings on their yule logs that they triggered a profits warning yesterday.

Finsbury Food Group hired hundreds of extra staff to cope with what was their busiest Christmas, with year-on-year sales of its seasonal cakes doubling. Given that Cardiff has one of the lowest unemployment levels in the UK, Finsbury Food struggled to find the quality of casual staff required for the fineries of cake icing.

This led to "significant inefficiencies in the manufacturing processes", the group said, as chocolate buttons and toffee drops were heaped on cakes with free abandon. Production lines slowed at the hands of "less dainty" young men, who were not trained in cake-making skills.

"Cake-making is a job that requires craftsmanship - speed, dexterity and knowledge," John Lomer, the finance director, said. "If you get a lot of 18-year-old lads in, they're going to be much less interested in making cakes than, say, more mature ladies. It's easy to make a sponge, but the most important part is the decorating."

This caused problems for Finsbury, already saddled by the rising costs of eggs. Egg prices have doubled since October.

Sales for the six months to the end of June were up 20 per cent, but the chaos at Cardiff has led the company to warn that there will be a "substantial reduction in forecast profitability". Analysts are now expecting Finsbury to break even over six months.

Lord Saatchi saw the value of his stake in the business tumble nearly £500,000 yesterday, as shares in Finsbury closed 21.8 per cent down.