DEPUTY MINISTER VISITS STATE OF THE ART NORTH WALES BAKERY

Supplying one of the UK’s best-known food retailers is the icing on the cake for North Wales bakers, The Village Bakery.

Alun Davies, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries visited the company’s new Wrexham bakery to see production at the award winning business, which recently secured a contract to supply in-store bakery scones to Marks & Spencer’s Café Revive cafes in the UK. The scones are sold in the food hall via the in-store bakery as well as in the cafes.

Established nearly 80 years ago the family owned business has three sites in North East Wales, including a recently opened state of the art craft bakery in Wrexham producing scones and morning goods.

The company, which is run by the Jones family – Alan and sons Robin, Christien and Tim – employs 230 people producing a range of baked ambient, baked frozen and unbaked frozen goods.

Alun Davies, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, said, “The Village Bakery is yet another example of a Welsh company supplying a prestige brand, and is a reflection of the high quality of produce available from Wales.”

The Village Bakery’s new premises is the result of a £7million investment by the company with technology including a low stress baking system and hotplate facility, which enables artisan products to be made in larger volumes.

The company’s products are sold through its own shops as well as producing goods for high street retailers including Marks & Spencer.

Also, some 30% of its gluten-free output is exported, an achievement which won its export arm – Village Bakery Nutrition Ltd - gold in the export category of the Wales the True Taste Food & Drink Awards 2011-12.

Robin Jones, master baker and managing director of the Wrexham site, said,

“We are very pleased to have the Deputy Minister on site to demonstrate to him that a local family business is working towards the forefront of the baking industry.”

“We are very grateful for the help we have received, not least from the Welsh Government in the form of Processing and Marketing Grants (PMG)* for our Coedpoeth site and Gluten Free site in Wrexham. It is the PMG that has given us the platform to go and approach retailers like Marks & Spencer and make products for them.”

Mr Jones also praised the mentoring assistance the company had received through the Welsh Government, which he said was “critical in us first tendering for the scones contract and then provided help in retraining our staff in the technical and innovation requirements of the major retailers. This has been essential for us to grow with Marks & Spencer and other retailers so that our systems and product development is at a level that they would expect.”

The Village Bakery also supplies True Taste Award-winning Welsh Cakes and Spicy Scone Rings to Marks & Spencer nationally, and will be launching another scone variety today (Monday January 30, 2012).

M&S bakery technologist Jim Hawkridge said,  “We’re pleased to be working with the Jones family, whose factory has the scale and expertise to deliver the volumes that a major retailer like M&S needs, yet still runs as a genuine family business, with close links to the local community.  The scones they make for us are absolutely delicious and are proving to be a big hit with our customers.”

Photo Captions: (Left to right) M&S bakery technologist Jim Hawkridge, Alun Davies, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Christien Jones, and Robin Jones.