BOSSES at the Bradford & Bingley sought to restore confidence in the troubled mortgage lender by buying a combined total of more than 0.5m shares, it emerged on Thursday.

Executive chairman Rod Kent bought the largest stake, taking 325,000 shares at 74.74p, paying a total of £242,000. Finance director Chris Willford bought 65,000 shares at 70p and five other board members took smaller stakes.

Shares in Bradford & Bingley have fallen sharply in recent months. Shareholders have criticised the bank’s decision to cut the price of its recently-announced £300m rights issue, despite it being underwritten, and to sell a 23% stake to US private equity group Texas Pacific without offering it to existing owners first.

Kent stepped up to an executive role following the resignation of chief executive Steve Crawshaw last week due to ill-health. NORTHERN FOODS’ chief executive Stefan Barden added to his family’s stake in the company when his wife spent nearly £200,000 on shares in the Goodfella’s Pizza and Fox’s biscuit maker.

Sandra Barden bought 264,572 shares at 75.07p each – giving her husband an interest in more than 1.7m shares in the company, just under 0.25%. Northern Foods’ shares have fallen considerably since January, when Mrs Barden bought 33,000 shares at 89p.

Last month Northern Foods said it was making good progress in its three-year strategic plan - pretax profit in the 52 weeks to March 29 rose to £50.1m from £40m a year earlier.

Operating profit at the chilled foods division rose from £14.6m to £22.1m, while the bakery division improved to £14.9m from £12.7m.

However, profits from the frozen foods division dipped to £11.4m from £18.4m, as a result of poor summer weather, intense promotional activity and a strong euro. The Irish business, which exports almost 70% of its output to the UK, lost £1.2m of profits through adverse currency translation.

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