Case Study

Kudos Blends

- Jun 03, 2026
- read

Related expertise:

About the client

Kudos Blends is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of technically driven baking powders and leavening agents. The business pride themselves on being technically driven, placing a key focus on continuous research and development (R&D).

Over the past 25 years, Kudos Blends have continued to grow and worked with some of the biggest industrial bakeries in the UK and worldwide. Throughout this time, their R&D efforts have remained central to the business, ensuring they keep up with market trends and customer demands in order to maintain their position as a market leader.

R&D is at the heart of what Kudos Blends does, with extensive work carried out on its patented bicarbonate and, more recently, significant technical development focused on ‘Zeus’, their groundbreaking new leavening agent. This ongoing innovation has already led to three successful R&D tax claims with Leyton, with a fourth claim now underway

The process of the claim

“Leyton really helped our understanding of what HMRC are actually looking for. Without this support, the process of claiming R&D can appear confusing. The key thing that stood out for me was the knowledge and experience of the team.

A real positive was that, at the very start, Leyton’s consultants, David and Jess, came to visit us on site. For our first claim, they spent the whole day with us to understand the projects, take a tour of the facility and see what we were doing.

They really tried to understand where the extent of the R&D was, including the ancillary costs and the other people that could be within the scope of the claim, which was a massive help.

We did the R&D claim and technical report ourselves for a number of years, but with increasing requirements from HMRC, it was difficult to know what they were actually looking for and what really met their criteria without an expert company being there to guide us through that.

The guidance that the Leyton team provided was helpful and made the entire process of the claim significantly easier for us. The experience and knowledge was always available to us and helped give clarity on where you can and can’t claim”.

The benefit of the claim

“We realised we had previously been massively underclaiming due to a lack of deeper understanding, which was a big factor in us coming to Leyton.

Due to Leyton’s support, we were able to clearly identify what we could claim, which provided us with the extra income to reinvest back into R&D, plan for the year ahead and evaluate further spending on continued R&D.

The claim wasn’t just about receiving extra money, it was about how we can reinvest this money into our business – providing us with the ability and peace of mind to invest in more projects.”

What would you say to other businesses thinking of claiming with Leyton?

format_quote

Reach out to the experts! Even though we had claimed previously, and had a rough idea of what we could claim, we were blown away by the actual scope of what the claim could be and what was required.There’s no better place to go for any companies claiming than the experts at Leyton, given the support they provide throughout the whole process.

Russell Pitt Finance Manager

What our consultants had to say

Jessica McGlynn

For Jess McGlynn, Consultant Manager at Leyton, the project highlighted just how much technical expertise lies behind something many people see as simple:
“At its heart, baking powder is a carefully controlled chemical system – balancing and manipulating acid–base reactions, gas evolution and reaction kinetics to deliver consistent leavening performance at scale. Seeing how the Kudos Blends team applies key principles such as pH control, reaction rates and thermal decomposition to deliver unique benefits in real-world food production was a brilliant example of chemistry in action.
What stood out most was the depth of technical challenge behind the ingredient. Developing and refining innovative agents across their patented product ranges requires rigorous experimentation, a deep understanding of material behaviour and precise control of process variables.
It was a pleasure to spend time on site, explore the science behind their formulations and translate that complex chemistry into a robust R&D claim that truly reflected the innovation taking place.”

Connect with Jessica

David Kerr

The collaboration also demonstrated the value of strong financial transparency and teamwork throughout the claims process. As Leyton Consultant David Kerr explains:

“Working with Kudos Blends on their R&D tax claim was a fantastic experience. Their ability to provide comprehensive financial data was invaluable and helped ensure a smooth and efficient process.

Together, we developed robust R&D apportionment methodologies that strengthened the validity of the claim. The team’s proactive and collaborative approach made our advisory role not only successful, but genuinely rewarding.”

Connect with David

Strengthen your claim

Our in-house team of highly experienced scientists, engineers, tax consultants and attorneys would love to answer all your questions and help you make the most out of your R&D efforts.

Global experience
Maximise your claim
Audit support
Team of experts

Contact our R&D Tax Experts