Argyll & Bute Council has asked Tesco for more information on a linked planning application to build a new store on the dairy processor’s existing Scottish site.

Farmer-owned co-operative First Milk announced plans to replace its current Campbeltown creamery in July 2009, with an undisclosed proportion of funding contingent upon the sale of the site to Tesco.

Planning permission for the creamery was granted this July, but a spokeswoman for Argyll & Bute Council, which is overseeing the application process, told DairyReporter.com that Tesco had yet to secure approval for the new store:

“We can confirm that we received a planning application from Tesco, and were hoping that the report could move forward to committee stage for approval in September.

“However, there are a few issues that we wish to clarify with Tesco, and we’ve gone back to the company in order to do so. We need to do this before we proceed with the application, so the precise timeline is a little up in the air now.”

First Milk did not comment specifically on the potential delay, but communications manager Jill Coyle said that building of the new facility was contingent upon Tesco’s success: “Due to the linked nature of the applications, we cannot go ahead until Tesco receives planning consent for its new store on the site of the existing creamery.

“A decision on that application is expected from Argyll & Bute Council later this year. If granted, we will then work alongside Tesco and the council to determine timelines.”

Coyle said that First Milk specifically intended to increase production at the new facility to grow market share for its Mull of Kintyre brands, while Scottish Pride cheese will also be made at the new facility.

She added: “The new creamery will provide processing efficiencies which cannot be achieved at the current plant, and will also allow us to treat and process the whey from the cheese-making process, which is currently not utilised.”

Asked about the potential for new job creation, Coyle said: “We are continuing to work through the numbers of people who will be required to operate the new creamery.

“Unlike the existing facility, we will also be looking to process all of the cheese whey on site, as well as looking at other opportunities for processing flexibility and new product development.”

First Milk announced plans to replace the existing creamery, which has been producing cheese since the early 1900s, after it said in July 2009 that the current site was “struggling to cope with modern demands”. 

Aside from the sale of the existing site to Tesco, the new creamery is being funded by the Scottish government (£3.9m), with First Milk funding the balance.

First Milk produces 16 per cent of all Great Britain’s liquid milk, as well as cheese and dairy ingredients. It also holds a 10 per cent stake in Robert Wiseman dairies.

Vion eyes veal expansion after EC approves Weyl takeover

Vion said it plans to expand its veal processing operations after being given the go-ahead by the European Commission to acquire Weyl.

The Holland-based meat producer was granted approval for the buyout of the fellow Dutch meat processing outfit after the Commission said the deal would not “significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA)”.

Brussels said it focussed its probe on “the potential competitive effects of the horizontal overlaps for the proposed merger in the area of purchase of live cattle and calves for slaughtering, sale of fresh beef and veal and abattoir by-products”. The Commission also examined the possible effects on the vertical markets – from the abattoir by-products to the sale of fresh beef and veal.

The body rubber stamped the transaction “as a sufficient number of competitors would remain in all of the above mentioned product markets”.

Prior to going into bankruptcy on 20 May, the international beef and calf processing company owned one plant in Germany and two in Holland – including at its headquarters in Enschede. No financial details about the transaction were available and Vion declined to give any details about which of the Weyl’s three plants it had agreed to buy as part of the deal signed on 2 July.

“The main reason we have signed this agreement to acquire Weyl is to get greater access to the veal market,” a company spokesman told FoodProductionDaily.com.

Vion is currently undertaking a strategic scoping exercise to map out how it wants to develop operations at its new acquisition. The company stressed it hoped to do this “as soon as possible” but said it could not be more specific on either the timetable or its proposals.

“We have to start up the operations again – including the whole supply chain,” added the spokesman. “We are studying the market very carefully to understand exactly what the sector needs.”

250 jobs to go at Northumberland Foods as 11th hour deal falls through

250 staff at Northumberland Foods have lost their jobs after eleventh-hour talks to rescue the frozen food manufacturer from administration fell through.

The firm, which makes own-label frozen potato products for Tesco, Iceland and Sainsbury's from its factory in Amble, Northumberland, has been crippled by cashflow problems in recent months and was forced to call in administrators earlier this week (August 18).

"Advanced negotiations" had been progressing with a potential purchaser over the last couple of days, said a spokesman from administrator Begbies Traynor. However, no deal had materialised.

“Though the company was loss-making and facing cash flow problems, we have been working hard to secure a sale to an interested party which would have rescued the company and saved the entire workforce.

"Unfortunately, despite the hard work and commitment of all concerned, this has not proved possible with negotiations failing at the eleventh hour."

Given the lack of other interested parties and the company’s substantial funding requirement in order to continue trading, Begbies was left with no alternative but to close the site down, he said.

Northumberland Foods, which used to trade as Cheviot Foods, was bought out of administration in February 2009 by its management, with additional financial backing from Northumberland County Council, regional development agency One North East and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The firm turned over £20m last year.

Chase Distillery expects to double turnover next year

Premium vodka and spirit producer Chase Distillery is confident of doubling its turnover to £3-4m in 2011 on the back of strong US sales.

The prediction follows a tie-up between Chase Distillery and US brand management firm, Pelican brands, to sell the firm’s premium vodka and elderflower liquor to US distributors and retailers from September.

Founder and ceo Will Chase told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “Turnover this year will be around 1.5m, we’re planning to boost this to £3-4m next year and £10m the year after on the basis of growing demand in the US and China.

“The States represents 60% of the world market for vodka, while the UK only represents 3%. The UK is more of a shop window for a brand, if it does well here then it’s likely to do well worldwide.”

Chase added that the distillery also has ambitious growth plans for China and India, with its unique selling point the romance of the English countryside. He also criticised what he described as cheap imitators trying to capture a share of the premium spirit market, following his firm’s success.

Chase Distillery launched the first English potato vodka in 2008, and in 2009 vodka replaced Scottish whisky as Britain’s most popular spirit. It now represents over 30% of UK spirit market sales, according to the Gin & Vodka Association.

Chase said: "I can see another 10-20 new ‘premium’ spirit firms mushrooming next year. You can be a one-minute wonder and get your product stocked behind bars. But will this success last, where will you be in three months time?

“We mash and grow our own potatoes, and use our own distillery to produce everything from scratch. We also make gin from our own cider, after we turn that into apple vodka. I can tell you the precise still that each bottle comes from.

“Other producers simply throw some bulk-bought vodka through a still, add a few botanicals and call it premium gin. We want to keep Chase as a premium brand.”

This commitment to quality necessitates care in regard to where the firm’s premium spirits are stocked, with listings at The Ivy, Harrods and The Ritz. Nonetheless, Chase does not rule out deals with selected major multiples:

“Waitrose fulfils our quality criterion and we have a national presence in their stores. We’re also in Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and sell an awful lot to Majestic Wine.”

And although Chase has ambitious plans to expand the business, he claims that world domination and a “corporate approach” is not on the cards:

“We have to grow. We currently shift one Transit van a day but could easily expand that to 10. The beauty of a distillery is that we could increase production by 50-60 times without spending a vast amount of money,” he said.

Campbell Soup Company emerges as bidder for United Biscuits

US food giant Campbell Soup Company has emerged as a potential bidder for biscuits and snacks giant United Biscuits.

Campbell, which sold its UK business to Premier Foods in 2006, has hired Centerview Partners to advise it on a bid, according to the Sunday Times.

Bosses are understood to be primarily interested in UB’s biscuit operation, which makes up three-quarters of the business, but less interested in its snacks arm, which makes Twiglets, Hula Hoops and KP Nuts.

UB is owned by private equity firms Blackstone and PAI Partners, which acquired UB in 2006 for £1.6bn. Last year the business posted profits up 14% to £223m on sales of £1.3bn, although it has £1.2bn of debt.

“Subject to the competition authorities, the snacks business may yet attract a leading existing player such as PepsiCo, which owns the Walkers and Doritos brands or maybe even Procter & Gamble with its Pringles presence,” Shore Capital analyst Clive Black told FoodManufacture.co.uk.

GMB national officer Alan Black said the union would prefer a trade buyer to a private equity buyer for UB, but other than that was "completely agnostic".

UB operates 11 factories in the UK and four factories in Continental Europe. It also has a group technical centre in High Wycombe and a HQ in Hayes, Middlesex.

Duerr's closes peanut butter factory at Old Trafford

Duerr's has ceased manufacturing at its Prestage Street factory in Old Trafford, with production to transfer to its larger factory at the Roundthorn Industrial Estate in Wythenshawe.

Although jam production moved to Wythenshawe a decade ago, around 20 staff have remained at Prestage Street making peanut butter under the Duerr's brand and supermarket own-labels.

Most staff at Prestage Street will relocate to Wythenshawe, said the firm.

Heinz has reduced its energy budget by more than 13% at its Kitt Green factory in Wigan over the past two years.

The 55-acre site, which makes canned baked beans, pasta, soup and puddings, is the largest food production facility in Europe.

Efficiencies have been achieved across the board through working closely with the Carbon Trust, utility manager Barry Aspey told FoodManufacture.co.uk.

However, the biggest savings have come from capturing and recycling waste heat from blanching (heating water to rehydrate dried beans) and steam-heating (sterilising) the beans in their cans, plus improved boiler efficiency.

During blanching, dust and debris from the beans accumulate in the water, which needs to be periodically drained off and replaced with ‘fresh’ hot water.

Heinz now uses the hot ‘blowdown’ water to heat new water for blanching via a heat exchanger. By opting for a plate system protected by a self-cleaning rotary filter, it has been able to prevent the debris removed during blanching from clogging up the system, said Aspey.

“This reduces the heat requirement by about three-quarters and largely removes the need to cool the effluent blowdown water before discharge. The heat exchanger has delivered impressive results and it gave us a return on investment in just two years.”

Meanwhile, the factory’s hydrostatic operator Peter Gwinnet has halved steam consumption in the factory’s hydrostatic (vertical) sterilisers by identifying a way to keep their two water streams – hot water at 80°C and cooler water at 40°C – separate.

Previously, the two streams were mixed and then sent for storage. When new water was required it was then heated back up to 80°C. Today, the cooler water is recovered to another water system.

Further work has focused on the rotary sterilisers, in which water is also segregated into high and low temperature streams, meaning heat from the ‘hot’ stream can be recovered and used to preheat other process water systems.

Further efficiency savings were generated by reducing the size of ‘bleed holes’ on sterilisers after discovering they were bigger than the legal 3mm minimum and were releasing more steam than necessary.

Separately, Heinz has improved the efficiency of its boilers through including a condensing economiser in its new energy centre, said head engineer Phil Crompton.

“Heinz is seeing a consistent overall thermal efficiency of over 90%, around 15% more efficient than the previous boiler house. The project gave a simple payback of 18-19 months, and the new energy centre has reduced emissions by 9,000t of carbon dioxide a year.”

Heinz is also exploring opportunities to produce power from waste and use more renewable energy (wind, solar) in a bid to meet its company-wide goal of reducing carbon emissions by 20% by 2015 (compared with 2005 levels), added Crompton.

“We are exploring the possibility of introducing anaerobic digestion. Reducing waste and increasing the use of renewable energy, this would help the factory achieve two of the company-wide sustainability goals. It could also save almost 3,200t of carbon dioxide a year at Kitt Green.”

Maple Leaf Bakery Walsall strikes delayed due to ‘technicality’

Strike action by staff at Maple Leaf Bakery UK’s Walsall factory has been delayed due to a technicality and a reballot is now being conducted, according to the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU).

The union balloted staff in June on strike action due to contractual changes proposed by the firm, with 108 in favour and seven opposed. But the BFAWU called off an initial two-day strike, scheduled for August 11-12, at the eleventh hour.

A BFAWU spokesman told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “We are having to reballot members upon the basis of a technicality, since the company complained that we had submitted the results within an email, rather than on hard copy.”

Contractual He said that Maple Leaf Bakery UK recently concluded a statutory 90-day consultation period, during which it advised over 200 staff at the Birchill factory (which makes own-label in-store bakery bread and Italian bakery products) of contractual changes: including reduced pay, cuts to overtime bonuses and holiday.

“Staff are looking at a general change to terms and conditions. The company are prepared to up basic pay rates to £6.88 an hour, but are trying to remove overtime rates for weekend work, as well as shift premiums,” he said.

The spokesman also claimed that Maple Leaf had not played fair with some employees who attempted to accept changes to contractual terms with attached letters of protest: “It is my understanding that basic contract law entitles employees to include such a letter,” he said.

In response to the union’s comments, Maple Leaf Bakery UK HR director Bob Archer told FoodManufacture.co.uk “The company continues to look for a resolution of the current dispute with the trade union representing our employees which is fair and reasonable to both parties and protects the business at the Walsall site.

“The current dispute is set against a continued bleak economic background, a robust and competitive marketplace and trading environment and severely increased raw material costs.

“All these issues are challenging at a time when our customers are continuing to place demands upon the business at Walsall to produce a product at a market competitive price.”

Maple Leaf Bakery UK is a leading specialty bakery producing bagels, croissants, Italian ciabatta and other bakery products for the UK and European markets. It employs approximately 1,200 people in the UK across six facilities.

Fire at Weetabix: Was it sparked by cereal dust

A three-alarm fire at The Weetabix Company in the US - which has caused about £129,000 damage - has been attributed to a buildup of cereal dust in ducts from a coating machine, according to www.telegram.com

The head of the fire department, Richard J Hart, said he plans to speak to Weetabix officials about improving procedures for cleaning ducts at the 20 Cameron St factory, says www.telegram.com.

“Cereal dust is a problem,” the chief said. “It’s fine and dry and doesn’t take much of a flame to ignite. It goes right through those ovens.”

“The chief said cereal ingredients are heated in the drying process and are often coated with sugar and other flammable substances. All kinds of things contribute to a kind of hazardous situation there,” he said.

An employee in the factory’s parking lot during the fire, which was reported about 8:40pm on the fifth floor of a newer building, said several small fires a year occur there but the one Wednesday was the largest he'd witnessed. Fires at Weetabix were reported by the Telegram & Gazette in 1992, 1993, 1995, 2000, 2003, 2008 and 2009 but none required three alarms.

Chief Hart said no injuries were reported Wednesday but fire companies from Berlin, Boylston, Lancaster, Sterling and West Boylston were called in because the high heat and humidity made it impossible for firefighters to work long stints. An ambulance and a stretcher were set up beside the building.

The company was evacuated. Employees said the building, especially the fifth floor, quickly filled with smoke. Weetabix, which employs about 265 workers, is Clinton’s second largest employer, after Nypro. Besides Weetabix cereal, the company produces food for Barbara’s Bakery, including Puffins and Snackanimals; and Alpen, all organic products.

It is unclear if Weetabix was in production yesterday. Nobody answered telephones, and Hart said they were probably still cleaning.

He estimated damage at $200,000 (about £129,000). The UK-based cereal company opened in Clinton in 1936 in the former Van Brode mills building off Green and Cameron streets. A 10,000-square-foot addition on the second floor opened in 2008 with much fanfare, including a visit by Gov Deval L Patrick, who sampled the new organic cereal bars produced there.

Fire halts production at Warburtons bakery

A fire stopped production at Warburtons’ Hereford Street bakery, in Bolton, as 60 firefighters fought to put out the blaze, which is thought to have started in an industrial oven.

Ten fire engines, from stations across Manchester, were called to the bakery at 2.50pm yesterday (Thursday), to deal with the blaze in a production area within the building. One hundred staff were evacuated from the site and there were no reports of any injuries.

A spokesperson for Warburtons told British Baker that the fire was contained to its ChippidyDooDaa snack plant, which suffered damage to around 15-20% of the site. The plant came on line earlier this year, marking Warburtons first entry into the bagged snacks market.

Due to the planned £25m redevelopment of the Hereford Street bakery site, a lot of equipment had already been removed from the bakery. However, one small bread plant was affected to a minimal degree. The spokeperson confirmed that production had stopped while a clean-up operation was carried out, and that it was unclear when production would start again.

She explained that bread deliveries were not affected at all, and that distribution at its Bolton bakery was fully operational with all deliveries sent out this morning. She added that Warburtons wanted to thank both the fireservice and also its own employees, from its sites across the country, who did “a sterling job” to ensure there was no impact on orders today.

Fire investigation officers are currently working with Warburtons to determine exactly how the fire started, but it is thought to have been accidental. Firefighters have been working to make the building safe to allow production to recommence as soon as possible.

As of 7.45am this morning (Friday), two fire crews were still in attendance, damping down at the site.

This is the first time Warburtons has suffered a major fire since January 2004, when a blaze destroyed much of its Wednesbury, West Midlands, bakery, after empty baskets at the back of the building caught fire.

Only 15% of production affected by Warburtons blaze

Only about 15% of production at Warburtons’ bakery at Hereford Street in Bolton is likely to be impacted long-term by last week’s fire, bosses have insisted.

Speaking to FoodManufacture.co.uk this morning (Monday August 2), a spokeswoman said it was too early to say when production would re-start at the bakery, but added: “In the short-term we are meeting customer orders from our other bakeries.

"But we think that long-term, only about 15% of the production capacity has been impacted by the fire.”

One fire engine remained at the site on Friday night to “dampen down and check” the site, which is next to the company’s head office, she said. “All our people at the bakery and the head office are at work as usual.”

Production staff were helping with the clean-up operation or working in the despatch area, she said.

How or why the fire started has not yet been established, she said.

10 fire engines called to blaze

Ten fire engines from stations across Manchester were called to the bakery at 2.50pm on Thursday to deal with the blaze, which is believed to have started in an industrial oven, a spokesman for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue told FoodManufacture.co.uk on Friday afternoon.

“We’ve still got one fire engine in attendance, but the fire has been brought down.”

It was a “pretty serious fire” he added. “We had 10 fire engines there at the peak, so it was a large incident.”

A planned £25m redevelopment at the site that was due to be commissioned from September 2011 would still go ahead, said Warburtons. However, the timetable might change.

The incident follows devastating fires at Dearne Valley Foods and Wessex Foods this month.

Vion create jobs in Scotland

Vion is creating 250 new jobs in Scotland as part of a multi-million pound investment programme at its plants at Coupar Angus and Cambuslang.

Approximately 150 new jobs have been created at Vion’s chicken processing business at Coupar Angus while a further 100 jobs have been created at the Added Value plant at Cambuslang.

In addition, the company claimed 234 jobs at Cambuslang have been safeguarded with the help of a Scottish Enterprise Regional Selective Assistance grant of £650,000.

Vion Poultry regional director for Scotland and the Southern Region Andrew Fisher said: “This is very positive news and just reward for the tremendous efforts not only of the teams at Cambuslang and Coupar Angus, but also through the wider Vion supply chain from our farmers and feed mill operators, through to our production, sales and administration colleagues.”

The firm’s investment programme along with an partnership with the Scottish Government, Scottish Development International and Scottish Enterprise, has delivered a swift and positive return, the company added.

Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said: “These significant investment plans for Cambuslang and Coupar Angus are excellent news for Scotland’s food sector, and for the local economies concerned. Vion’s investment brings a very welcome jobs boost and confirms that the company sees a long-term future in Scotland.”

The Vion Food Group announced a rise in overall net profit from €54m (£46m) to €62m (£53.5m) in 2009 but have made a number of jobs cuts this year at Welsh Country Foods in Anglesey and Vion Haverhill in Suffolk.

Dalepak snapped up by IFP

Irish Food Processors has announced the purchase of North Yorkshire-based Dalepak Frozen Foods from Northern Foods.

The new acquisition will operate within the IFP Convenience Food Division, with current employees at Dalepak transferring to the IFP Group.

Dalepak is a well known brand in the UK retail and foodservice industries marketing meat products and meat-free grills.

A spokesman for IFP said “The Dalepak product range is an excellent fit for our growing convenience food operations in the UK.”

Moy Park to Increase Production Capacity

UK-based Moy Park will invest £10m ($12.8m) to expand its Ashbourne poultry processing site by 25%.

The company will build a 14m-high building at the firm's site in Derbyshire, England, according to foodmanufacture.co.uk.

The first stage of the plan involves the installation of a chiller unit with an associated plant room and portal frame.

In the second phase, Moy Park will erect an open lairage building to keep chickens before being sent to slaughter and refurbish existing buildings internally.

The firm is also investing in an automated sliced meat packaging line at its Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, site that will 'pick and place' product packs into retail-ready packaging.

Coca-Cola Enterprises achieves 78% efficiency in new Wakefield can line trial

A new £13m can line at Coca-Cola Enterprises’ Wakefield factory returned 78% efficiency in commissioning mode for the whole of last week during the introduction of a new four-pack format.

The new line can handle several pack variants including four, six and eight-packs as well as loose merchandising pallets, a company spokesperson told FoodManufacture.co.uk.

“Line seven has also been specifically designed for future capability in relation to can sizes of 330ml-500ml, pack format – shrink design and pack variants – and pallet design.”

The line will augment the two existing can lines at Wakefield – that jointly produce almost 4,000 units per minute – by turning-out another 2,000 per minute, and will produce all can and product variants, including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Schweppes.

Job creation

Asked if the expansion would create new jobs the spokesperson said that Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) reviewed crewing requirements annually across its Wakefield site and would not attribute changes to a particular part of its operation.

As CCE’s largest factory in Great Britain, the Wakefield facility opened in 1989 with an initial investment of £90m. A resulting injection of £150m over 20 years pushed production up to a million cans per day before the installation of the new can line.

CCE manufactures, sells and distributes over 80 soft drink products across Great Britain under its own and other brands. It employs 4,500 staff across six manufacturing sites, offices and depots.

Unilever sells Italian frozen arm to Birds Eye Iglo

Unilever is to sell its Findus Italian frozen foods operation to a company in which Birds Eye Iglo has a significant stake in a €805m (£681m) deal.

The Italian business was the only part of Unilever’s European frozen food operations that it kept when it sold Birds Eye and Iglo to private equity firm Permira in 2006.

The transaction includes leading brands 4 Salti in Padella, Sofficini, Capitan Findus and That's Amore, plus a dedicated factory in Cisterna, Italy.

Unilever Italy chairman James Hill said: "Findus is the lynchpin of an attractive and profitable frozen foods business and I am confident that it will prosper under the dedicated resource and focused management that the new owners will bring.

"With this deal Unilever is now in a stronger position to focus on its core categories outside frozen foods and to achieve long-term growth in the Italian market."

Under the deal, which is subject to EU anti-trust regulatory approval, about 650 factory and head office employees will transfer to Birds Eye. Findus Italy turned over €462m (£391m) in 2009.

It is understood that Birds Eye Iglo beat strong competition for the deal from Findus Group, which is owned by private equity firm Lion Capital.

Unilever's Italian ice cream business, which includes the Viennetta, Solero and Cornetto brands, is not part of the deal.

Deadline for Twinings job losses pushed back

The first round of redundancies at Twinings’ North Shields factory has been delayed until February 2011, having originally been due to start this September.

Parent company Associated British Foods announced plans to close the site late last year as part of a restructuring of Twinings that would see UK tea production consolidated at Twinings’ Andover facility, a new €45m (£37.7m) factory built in Poland and significant investment in its Chinese tea factory.

However, 263 phased job losses leading-up to the final shutdown in September 2011 have been delayed, the company confirmed.

USDAW (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) northeastern division political officer Jayne Shotton told FoodManufacture.co.uk that problems establishing the Polish site had caused the delay. The timetable determining which staff members went first was still fluid, she added.

“We’re holding constant meetings with the company, but the closure is subject to change and in terms of a timescale we only have the final February date to work with.

“It is very dependent on the gradual transfer of machinery to Poland and Twinings’ other facilities in Andover and China.”

North Shields staff retraining

Shotton said the union had been working with North Tyneside Council and recently abolished regional development agency One North East to provide a resource group identifying retraining opportunities for affected staff at North Shields.

She also revealed that Twinings had offered existing North Shields staff the opportunity to help establish operations in Poland early next June.

“The idea is that staff here will be paid to travel over there and work for a few months – returning to the UK every other weekend. The uptake has been surprisingly good.”

Moy Park win secures jobs with new food plant

 The necessary £10 million upgrades to its factory in Blenheim Road, Ashbourne, were designed by leading architecture practice, the Frank Whittle Partnership (FWP) whose proposals include almost doubling the size of the poultry processing plant on the Airfield Industrial Estate and upgrading the facades to the existing buildings.

The multi-disciplinary practice is expert at steering sensitive commercial schemes through the complex planning process.

The Lancashire-based architecture and design practice is a leader in the field of cost management and project management working across all sectors including manufacturing, retail, education and health.

David Robinson, managing partner at FWP, said: “This is a very good planning win for the client since it enables them to increase production by a quarter and maintain staffing levels in the short to medium term.

“Our experience at communicating and liasing closely with the client and the planners has been crucial in helping to steer this high profile scheme through the complex planning process.

“Our expertise in the manufacturing sector and our ability to manage multi-million pound projects was a major factor in ensuring the project got planning consent.”

FWP’s successful commercial and retail projects include:

• Patak Foods – £10 million new headquarters and 200,000 sq ft food processing facility for Patak Spices Ltd. The scheme was completed in less than 12 months and £0.5 million below budget

• Meyer Prestige - £6.5 million new headquarters and 220,000 sq ft of storage and distribution warehouse, procured on a design and build basis for the renowned international cookware manufacturer

• Leigh Sports Village - £8 million leisure and retail park. The current phase is a 64,000sq ft food retail unit, together with associated non-food retail

• Barton Grange - £12 million 50 acre Marina and Waterside Garden Park providing a major new tourism and recreational facility adjacent to the Lancaster Canal

• Gloucester Gateway Motorway Services - £24 million new motorway services on the M5. Providing comprehensive project and cost management services to see the facility near Gloucester secure planning and built on time and to budget

Arron Crick, designer at FWP, said: “Our brief was to come up with a design that would help Moy Park increase production by 25% and meet the changes required by clients. “We also needed to achieve environmental objectives and targets and meet customer and community expectations.

“We worked with the council, local residents and the various experts associated with food production to produces a design that will have the minimum effect on neighbouring properties as well as ensuring Moy Park has a modern, effective production site.”

Tate & Lyle has sold its sugar business to American Sugar Refinery for £211m ($320.79m)

The group said the sale would be used to reduce net debt levels and the company would be more focused and less volatile as a result.
Tate & Lyle's sugar business includes refineries in the UK and Portugal, as well as the Golden Syrup factory in London.
Although the group reported pre-tax profits of £229m for the year to March, the group's net debt stood at £814m

Bakkavör faces strike threat as pay talks falter

Chilled food giant Bakkavör has become the latest food manufacturer to become embroiled in a pay dispute that threatens to spill over into industrial action.

The dispute – at Bakkavör’s pizza plant in Harrow – has been rumbling on for “months and months”, Gary Carter, an organiser at the GMB union told FoodManufacture.co.uk.

“It started last year when they proposed a pay freeze for 2009-2010 across all UK sites. GMB members at Harrow were asking for a 2.5% increase in basic pay and minor increases to holiday and sick pay.

"All the management was prepared to offer was a lump sum of £50 and a much lower offer just covering 2010-2011.

“Members have just got to the stage where enough is enough. Harrow is a profitable plant with a hard-working, long-serving and loyal staff, and they are disappointed and frustrated with the way that the management has handled this.”

GMB members were willing to consider a two-year pay deal (covering the period from September 2009 to September 2011) but the total on offer from the company did “not even satisfy the claim for the first year so it is not surprising that negotiators are recommending rejection of all the proposals”, added GMB senior organiser Tony Warr.

The GMB is conducting an indicative ballot (results due July 12) before progressing to a formal strike ballot, he added.

“I already have reports of industrial unrest at Harrow due to the management’s abhorrent attitude to this particular negotiation and I fully expect we will be balloting for industrial action over the next few weeks following the indicative ballot.”

The GMB has 400 members at the Harrow plant (out of a workforce of about 750), said Warr: "To ask the workforce to accept less than £1 a week increase in pay while the Bakkavör Pizza coffers swell is scandalous.

"Our members did not ask for a pay freeze in 2009, it was simply imposed without any thought of negotiation or consideration of other alternatives.”

A fair offer in difficult trading conditions?

A spokesman for Bakkavör said: " After several meetings and discussions with ACAS involvement, we regret that we have not been able to make an offer which the union feels it can recommend.

He added: “In our view the offer we have made is a fair one in view of difficult trading conditions, with various options on a pay deal worth between 2.3% and 2.4%, as well as a one-off payment of £50 for all weekly paid employees.

“We believe that given the current economic climate this is a good offer and the best which we are able to make.”

Bakkavör posted a 24.6% rise in earnings (before interest tax, depreciation and goodwill amortisation) to £135.1m on sales of £1.65bn in 2009.

Commenting on the results in March this year, chief executive Ágúst Gudmundsson said the figures demonstrated a “strong improvement in profit delivery, good sales growth in our key UK fresh prepared foods business and a return to significant cash generation” after a tough couple of years.

Hayden’s expands plant in Devizes

Hayden’s Bakeries has opened bigger premises in Devizes, with the aim of creating 150 new jobs over the next three years.
The firm, a division of The Real Good Food Company, makes bakery, patisserie and chilled dessert products for retailers including Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.

It has added 30,000sq ft to its 74,000sq ft site which will be used for distribution. MD Paul Smith said the new buiding would free up a large amount of space in the existing factory.

He said: “We have strong new product development and will hopefully be producing some cutting-edge new products for the premium end of the chilled dessert market, particularly for Waitrose. We are in a great place to benefit from the new concepts that Waitrose are trialling, and we are looking to expand with new customers too.”

Smith added that the expansion would lead to jobs within the company at all levels, from hand-crafting the cakes to managerial roles or IT positions.

Sales were 30% up on two years ago, according to Smith, with growth through all of its customers. He added: “People might be eating out a bit less than they did because of the recession, but we’ve benefited from that, because when they eat at home they are buying desserts and cakes from premium retailers.”

Fine Lady gears up for October launch of new bakery

Fine Lady Bakeries is working with urban regeneration organisation New East Manchester (NEM) and JobCentre Plus to equip local people with the skills to work in its £20m new bakery in Newton Heath.

The Banbury-based firm, which produces own-label bread and morning goods to the leading supermarkets, independent retailers, sandwich makers and caterers, is aiming to open the new bakery in October, and has been ramping up recruitment activities in recent weeks ahead of the launch.

Ultimately, the site could employ 250 people when it is operating at full capacity.

Under a scheme set up by NEM and Jobcentre Plus, local unemployed people will have the chance to complete free three-week training courses designed to provide them with the skills to work in the new bakery, NEM employment and training manager Mike Cunliffe told FoodManufacture.co.uk.

Those that complete the training, which will cover food hygiene, health and safety and haccp (hazard analysis critical control point), will be guaranteed an interview with Fine Lady Bakeries, said Cunliffe."It's effectively a three-week interview as the training will be conducted in close consultation with the senior production staff at the bakery and they will have a pretty good idea by then who is able to do the job."

All staff will work a 12-hour shift with four days on and four days off, then four nights on, followed by four nights off, enabling the bakery to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Targeted training

NEM chief executive Eddie Smith added: “We have developed an excellent partnership with the local Jobcentre Plus and other partners. Together we are committed to offering relevant training for those that are currently unemployed so they have the chance to get back on the career ladder.”

Jobcentre Plus account manager Hazel Holmes said: “We are working closely with Fine Lady Bakeries to help fill their vacancies; ensuring local people are given all the support they need to compete for the jobs on offer."

Fine Lady md Joe Street is keeping tight-lipped about the contents of the new bakery or where he sees the biggest growth opportunities for the business, telling FoodManufacture.co.uk: “We do not court publicity.”

The training courses will start in July.

Hain Celestial: Churchill production will move to Luton

Hain Celestial will switch production from recently-acquired food-to-go firm Churchill Food Products from Nottingham to its larger facility in Luton, but insisted that staff would be “actively encouraged” to move to Luton “if they are able to do so”.

HR boss Graham Trevor told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “We have commenced consultation with the employees at Churchill. We have undertaken our initial strategic review, and at this stage our proposal is to move the production from Nottingham to Luton.”

He added: “We are currently putting together a proposed transfer plan to discuss with the employee representatives. There are 90 staff at Churchill. We have vacancies at Luton and will be actively encouraging as many people as possible to move to Luton if they are able to do so.”

Hain recently switched production from its Daily Bread sandwich plant in London to Luton in a bid to secure the future of the site, which was thrown into question last year following the loss of an M&S contract that accounted for 90% of its output.

Production has since been transferred to rivals, although Hain carried on supplying ham, cheese and pickle products to M&S from Luton until April this year.

The Churchill acquisition would complement Hain’s Daily Bread branded sandwich and snack range, which is supplied to several companies, museums, sporting and educational establishments, Hain Celestial chief executive Irwin D. Simon said earlier this month: “Our combined technical and innovation teams will bring us the capability of developing more exciting and healthy food-to-go products."

Unions call off Coca-Cola strike ballot

The threat of industrial action at Coca-Cola plants across the UK has been averted after unions agreed to call off a strike ballot and get back around the negotiating table.

Alan Costello, regional officer for members of the GMB union at Coca-Cola, told FoodManufacture.co.uk that the GMB and Unite unions were now engaged in constructive talks with company bosses at Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE).

He added: "Thankfully, we've managed to resolve the situation. The strike ballot result was due on Friday (June 25), but we've adjourned it.

“The major issue [with CCE] was a lack of consultation, and we've got to put a process in place to address this. But we've got a commitment to move forward together."

The decision to launch a formal ballot for industrial action was taken earlier this month, raising the possibility of a summer of strikes across 12 UK Coca-Cola sites.

Union members at these sites had already voted in favour of conducting a strike ballot in a consultative ballot held in the spring in a bid to secure national talks on major changes to key conditions of employment, including basic pay and pensions.

A CCE spokesman said: “We can confirm that following a productive meeting on June 21, CCE, Unite and GMB are committed to moving forward together to make our relationship as effective as possible in the future.

"Whilst notice to ballot was received at one of our sites, both the trade unions and CCE believe that the situation can be resolved without recourse to industrial action, and our positive discussions continue.”

Site modernisation project at bakery

Planning permission has been secured for a site modernisation project at Frank Roberts & Sons' Rudheath bakery in Northwich. The investment is a significant move to keep the family business as a cost-efficient bread supplier well into the future.

The construction consists of a 3,000m² distribution centre at the bakery, which produces two million loaves, rolls and morning goods each week. The programme is due to be completed in early 2011 with the last six months focusing on process line installation and commissioning within the building.

Lorien has worked with Frank Roberts & Sons for six years offering a multitude of skills to the family business. The firm has been appointed as building and utility designers on this development and will also project manage the integrated design and project management of the new facility. The team is tasked with maintaining the current manufacturing ability and customer service levels while the developments take place.

The Frank Roberts & Sons bakery is said to be a local landmark in Cheshire and has been a leading employer in the county since 1887. The bakery supplies the major multiples as well as owning its own fleet of delivery vehicles, which distribute stock direct to local shops up and down the country.

Mike Braddock, MD of Frank Roberts & Sons said: "These ambitious plans will help us to create a more modern and efficient manufacturing site. The expansion will also allow us to develop the brand and add more products to our ranges securing our long-term future as a leading bakery in the UK. Our confidence in Lorien's expertise in project management and engineering design meant they were the obvious partner of choice for this programme."

Phil Colquhoun, project manager at Lorien Engineering Solutions who led the redevelopment, said: "There are few privately owned family bakeries left in the UK so we're delighted to be able to support Frank Roberts & Sons in the next phase of its development. Lorien's expertise will ensure that the project will be completed without compromising the manufacturing output of the bakery and continuing production at full capacity."

Lorien Engineering Solutions, an engineering design and project management organisation, is part of the Lorien Limited group of companies. With operations in Lichfield, UK and Wroclaw, Poland, it says it employs more than 70 specialists who design and deliver manufacturing projects in the brewing, drinks, food and pharmaceutical industries.

Holland Pies suspends director Neil Court-Johnson

The managing director of a prominent Lancashire-based meat pie-making company has been suspended from his position.
Neil Court-Johnson the managing director of Hollands Pies based in Accrington, part of the Northern Foods group has not been at his desk for the last ten days.

Court-Johnson, who took up his current role in 2008, has helped increase sales at the company by exporting abroad, entered into the halal market and increasing sales via the internet.

However Northern Foods had become concerned that Court-Johnson may have been discussing  with investors a possible management buyout of the company.

Northern Foods has indicated that it is satisfied with the current strong position of Holland Pies and no sale is planned.

In an official statement a spokesman for Northern Foods said: "We wouldn't comment on matters relating to individual employees.

"Holland's continues to operate as normal and, having been around for 160 years, the business is a team rather than about individual employees."
Roberts Bakery buys ailing Aldreds
 - Published:  21 June, 2010
Roberts Bakery has purchased Aldreds the Bakers after parent company D&G Food Group put its four bakeries up for sale earlier this month.
The deal to acquire Derbyshire-based Aldreds has secured the jobs of all 62 staff at the factory, which manufactures rolls, bakery and confectionery products and has a turnover of £3 million.

Aldreds will operate as a division of Roberts, “and will benefit from the solid financial foundation and strong buying power of the £69.5m Roberts group”, announced the firm. Aldreds factory in Ilkeston will continue to operate as normal and its current management team will remain in place.

“This is a very positive move for both companies,” commented Mike Braddock, managing director of Roberts Bakery.

“Roberts is a successful business and we are very excited to have the opportunity to develop it further through our alliance with Aldreds, which is well known and respected in the industry.

“We’re delighted to not only invest in Aldreds’ future but also to provide job security for its loyal team of staff,” he added.

Fords Bakery is rescued from administration

Scullions Wholesale Bakery, a subsidiary of the McGhee Group, has bought fellow Scottish firm Fords Bakery out of administration, saving 87 jobs.
The East Lothian bakery faced severe cash flow problems and found it hard to cope with rising costs for raw materials, said administrators KPMG. As a result, 26 staff at the company were made redundant along with another 41 who worked at its stores.

Fords – which had an annual turnover of £5m – supplies supermarkets, foodservice companies and independent bakeries in East and Central Scotland with bread, cakes and confectionery.

As part of the sale, all of its remaining employees will transfer to Scullions, which will continue to service Fords’ existing direct delivery customers and supermarkets including more than 100 Co-operative stores.

Scullions Wholesale Bakery employs 220 staff at its site in Glasgow and said the sale would strenghten its presence in Scotland.

For the full story see the 2 July issue of British Baker.

Northern Foods: 'Holland's Pies is not up for sale'

Northern Foods bosses "have not and are not looking to sell" Holland's Pies, the firm has insisted following its controversial decision to suspend the pie maker's md.

Holland's Pies' md Neil Court-Johnston (pictured above left with Sainsbury's boss Justin King) was suspended last month in the wake of allegations that he had conducted talks with rival firms and investors regarding a potential management buyout without the consent of company bosses.

A spokesman for Northern Foods declined to comment on Court-Johnston's position, but told that the company had not been and was not looking to sell the business. He added: "We have not and are not looking to sell Holland's and in fact we are investing in the business and the brand currently."

The firm has parachuted in Robin Walker, group md, convenience foods, to run Holland’s on an interim basis, he confirmed.

Unpopular decision

But Court-Johnston's suspension has not gone down well with some shareholders, who have raised concerns about Northern Foods’ strategy in postings on the Crain's Manchester Business website.

One respondent called James Rich said: “What's going on at Northern? First the fuss in the biscuits division, are we closing, are we not? Then the crazy actions at Green Isle leading to hunger striking employees. Then this weird story around Holland’s, which has always been a bit suspect in their portfolio following the sale of Pork Farms.

“Add to this disagreements with M&S (Fenland Foods), Morrisons (C&G Hull), and Sainsbury’s (Ethnic Cuisine ) and it seems Northern is fighting everyone both internally and externally.”

Several contributors to the site also praised Court-Johnston, who managed to maintain strong growth at Holland’s throughout the economic downturn.

R.Guha said: “As well as being a shareholder of Northern Foods, I know a number of people who work at Holland's Pies. The workforce sees Court-Johnston as a success; he has transformed the fortunes of the company after many years of decline and protected jobs in the midst of a crash.”

The Northern Foods spokesman said: "Holland's is operating as normal. The business has over 300 employees rather than just one. Robin Walker, who already has ultimate responsibility for Holland's, is overseeing the business.Our only on-the-record comment is that we wouldn’t comment on matters relating to individual employees.”

He declined to comment on the turnover of the business, but clarified: “Sales are nowhere near £40m, as one paper suggested.”

Resurrected seafood plant to create 70 jobs

Lighthouse Caledonia is on track to reopen its refurbished, Marybank processing plant in Stornoway, which was mothballed in 2008.

The facility will initially create around 70 full-time jobs and have the capacity to produce high quality, pre-rigor pin bone out fillets. The firm says it plans to be running the site at full capacity within the next couple of months.

However, the opening of the refurbished Marybank site may only be temporary, said a spokeswoman, as the firm has received planning permission to build a new £5m plant at Arnish Point.

This will include the building of a new gutting and filleting facility in a 7,000m2 site, which will be able to process up to 15,000t of fish per year.

The spokeswoman said that Lighthouse Caledonia does not plan to operate both sites, so it may relocate to Arnish Point within the next few years.

Last month the firm announced a rise in turnover to £24m during the first quarter of 2010, compared with £6.2m for 2009, as harvested volumes more than tripled to 6,468t against the previous year.

Profits were £6.6m against a £13,500 loss in quarter one of 2009. Mike Corbett, chief executive officer of Lighthouse Caledonia, said its results followed "improved levels of production and strong market conditions".

Warburtons to invest £25M in new bakery site

Plans are underway to overhaul Warburtons' bread plant at its site in Bolton. The investment is estimated to be around £25M and the new facility should be up and running by the end of next year.

The redevelopment of the bakery necessitated the closure of two existing bread plants at the site, according to a spokeswoman for the firm, who said that some of the equipment needed updating.

"The replacement of the old bread plants will help boost capacity and improve the quality of baked goods," she said.

As a result, the company launched a consultation period for employees over three months ago, which affected up to 121 jobs. The bakery confirmed last month that 45 employees have taken voluntary redundancy or early retirement, and the rest have been moved to alternative areas of the business.

Warburtons will now proceed with the site's makeover and introduce the new plant bakery, she said.

Unions launch strike ballot at 12 UK Coca-Cola plants

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) faces industrial action at 12 UK plants this summer after unions launched a strike ballot in a bid to secure national bargaining over pay and pensions.

The result of the ballot is expected at the end of the month, with strikes to follow in July while the World Cup (which Coca-Cola is sponsoring) is still in progress.

The decision to launch a formal strike ballot was taken after a meeting with management last Friday (June 4), said Alan Costello, GMB regional officer for members in Coca-Cola. “Both unions [the GMB and Unite] gave notice that they will now move to a formal ballot for industrial action to secure national bargaining. The ballot itself will start on June 11.”

The 12 Coca-Cola sites affected are at Wakefield, East Kilbride, Northampton, Sidcup, Milton Keynes, Edmonton, Enfield, Bristol, Southampton, Exeter, Uxbridge, and Hammersmith.

Union members at these sites have already voted overwhelmingly in favour of conducting a strike ballot in a consultative ballot, said Costello. “Employees want to see national talks on major changes to key conditions of employment, including basic pay and pensions.”

He added: "The Coca-Cola workforce is seeking national bargaining and the management has turned this down. The next step is to move to a formal ballot for strike action as employees have already voted by 96% in a consultative ballot to take strike action to secure national bargaining."

CCE recently announced changes to its pension scheme, which mean that workers will now be required to work until they are 65 (instead of 60) unless they are willing to accept a loss of up to a quarter of their pension, he claimed.

“GMB members do not consider that the extent of the cuts CCE made to its pension scheme are justified, particularly in the UK, where earlier this year it became the first ever brand to break through the £1bn sales barrier.”

CCE 'disappointed'

A CCE spokeswoman said: "CCE is very disappointed by the trade unions' intent to ballot for industrial action. We remain in and are committed to dialogue with all of our employees and with the unions, and we firmly believe this offers the prospect of a constructive outcome – unlike industrial action.

"In the current economic climate, the pay rises that CCE is offering are very competitive. Top of our agenda for discussion with the unions is agreeing the right approach to managing future pay negotiations.

"Changes to our defined benefit pension scheme followed a full consultation process directly with our employees and employee representatives. We informed the unions at the start of that process and listened to their feedback throughout. The defined benefit pension scheme will remain in place. It will now be more sustainable for the future and remains a very competitive and positive benefit for employees who are members."

Brewery drastically cuts carbon consumption

A brewery in Wales has reduced its carbon emissions by 40% and water consumption by 46%, following a £1.4M investment in new technology.

The initiative at InBev's brewery in Magor was supported by the Unite union and the Carbon Trust.

The project was driven by employees at all levels who worked with other departments to identify areas for energy and resource savings.

The brewery has cut carbon emissions and water use by nearly half "an impressive statistic" from a company that used 35,000m3 of water per day and produced 50t of carbon dioxide, according to the Welsh Assembly environment minister Jane Davidson.

"The work carried out to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions at this brewery is truly impressive ... it has resulted in millions of pound savings for the company," added Davidson. "I know that the project has engaged, and relied upon people from all levels of the organisation to identify where energy savings can be made, and I am sure this has been key to its success."

Nestlé and unions to thrash out pay deal

Nestlé UK and trade unions are to meet next week in another effort to come to an agreement over staff pay.

The meeting, which looks likely to take place in Croydon next Friday, follows the threat of industrial action at Nestlé’s York chocolate factory, where union members are still considering a proposed 1% increase in basic pay.

Nestlé and unions have now agreed to pick up discussions on a national level, and although no date has been set in stone, Alan Black, national officer at the GMB union, told that Friday June 11 was a “likely” date for the next step in negotiations.

“We hope that the company nationally will revisit the question of the degree of flexibility available for local managers to bargain sensibly for the 2010 pay round,” he said.

Nestlé confirmed the meeting will be taking place and said that talks so far have been held on a local level, and that those site-specific discussions would continue.

A company spokesman said that recent local meetings had been “productive” and “useful”.

York dispute

Unions have yet to release the results of a second ballot on the proposed 1% pay rise offer at Nestlé’s York facility, which the company tabled in April.

The offer had followed an earlier proposal to freeze pay, which had prompted unions to start balloting members on industrial action.

Fire-ravaged factory will 'recreate' 314 jobs

A total of 314 jobs are being created at Longbenton Foods in North Tyneside, as the factory continues its multi-million pound recovery from the fire that forced it to close in early 2009.

With the help of grants from Regional Development Agency One North East and a short-term loan from North Tyneside Council, the frozen food firm has recovered from the disaster. It restarted production in September 2009.

Last month, One North East pledged a further £1.4m towards redeveloping the firm's crispy pancake hall (Hall 4), which was the area most badly damaged by the fire. Once operational, the hall will employ up to 134 new staff. This will take the total investment into the plant by the firm and public sector partners to £13.7m.

This latest funding builds on the £2m pledged by One North East in 2009 to get Halls 13 up and running, which will create 180 jobs. Around 70 of the firm's former staff have been retained.

Back from the brink

Longbenton md Vidar Engen said: "The true evidence that support from One North East and the council is giving tangible results is the fact that a fire damaged site with a doomed future has now been cleaned up, machinery reinstated, and we are producing food again that will be stocked in UK supermarkets."

The former Findus factory, which made crispy pancakes and fish fingers, was forced to shed its entire 420 workforce when administrators closed it down.

North Tyneside's elected Mayor Linda Arkley said: "This is a prime example of what can be achieved when public and private partners work together."

Greencore: Factory closures have tackled overcapacity

While margins in chilled ready meals manufacturing remain wafer-thin, factory closures in the sector have gone “some way” to rebalancing supply and demand, Greencore has claimed.

Speaking as the convenience food giant posted a 43% rise in operating profit* to €27.7m on sales up 2.1% to €434.5m, chief executive Patrick Coveney said: “For many years the ability to earn an economic return in chilled ready meals has been hampered by excess manufacturing capacity.

“There have been six scale factory closures in the last two years, which have gone some way towards rebalancing supply and demand. We now earn a return on capital in chilled ready meals much closer to our portfolio average.”

Meanwhile, consumers that had “retreated” from the category had started to return, he said. “The performance of prepared meals was significantly ahead of the same period last year.”

The convenience foods market in the UK had also “moved on significantly from the uncertainty it experienced in the early part of the year”, he claimed.

American dream

However, Greencore's fledgling US business was the biggest growth engine in the group, posting a 27% leap in sales in first-half, revealed Coveney: “A key driver of [US] growth has been food-to-go volumes, with our fresh manufactured sandwich offering replacing made-in-store lines at our grocery retail customers.

“Sales to date in the seasonally more important second half of the year have also continued on the same trend as the first half.”

Ambient

There was also strong growth from the firm’s ambient cooking sauces, pickles and salad dressings business, which had been subject to a significant streamlining programme to cut loss-making or uneconomic lines, said Coveney.

“Category profitability was well ahead of last year's first half although sales decreased by 8.7% due to the stock keeping unit rationalisation."

The cakes and desserts business had a “satisfactory first half in a difficult environment”, he said, with strong promotional activity denting margins. “Consumers generally have traded down in the category and reduced their purchasing frequency of higher tier lines.”

Chilled and frozen

There was much stronger growth in chilled soup (up 26%) “albeit from a small base”, said Coveney, while pasta sauce volumes “held up well”.

The frozen Yorkshire pudding business had a solid first half despite increased competition, significant promotional activity, and a fire at the factory in Leeds in March, he added.

“The site was back in production in April albeit with reduced capacity until the re-fit is completed over the summer.”

Desserts

Greencore’s foodservice desserts business was trading “modestly ahead” of a flat market, he said. “We continue to focus on building scale trading relationships and are now the number one foodservice desserts supplier to leading foodservice players such as Brakes, Greene King, Caffé Nero and Whitbread.”

Chilled overcapacity

Operations managers agreed that recent closures had helped address capacity issues in the chilled ready meals sector, but said margins were still worryingly low.

One said: “Margins in some parts of the chilled food manufacturing sector have been squeezed so much that there is nothing left to screw out of us.”

He added: “Kerry Group is the only one that seems to be making reasonable returns.”

Another new product development manager in the sector said: “It’s really concerning, because we are not making the returns that you need to re-invest.”

She added: “The frequent re-tendering for business is also really demotivating because you can’t plan for the long-term.”

* from continuing operations

Greencore staff agree to new shift patterns at Hull

Staff at Greencore’s Hull cake factory have agreed to work to a new shift pattern proposed by company bosses.

Greencore, which warned that jobs would have to go in Hull following the loss of a supermarket contract earlier this year, had originally proposed switching to a continental ‘four (12-hour) days on, four days off’ shift pattern in an attempt to reduce costs and minimise the number of redundancies.

After this was rejected by members of the Unite union working at the site, a new seven-day, eight-hour shift pattern ensuring staff would work only one weekend a month was put forward. Under this deal, which union members have just approved, staff will not get premium rates for working on weekends or bank holidays, but will get a 2% rise in basic pay.

A Greencore spokesman: "Greencore, in conjunction with employee representatives including Unite, has assessed a number of different work patterns throughout the past 90-day consultation. A proposal was put forward for the site to become a seven-day operation, where colleagues work two weekend days in a four-week period.

"An agreement has been reached whereby our colleagues moved to the new shift patterns from June 1."

Bitter pill

It is understood that 87 jobs will now go at the site.

Ian Wood, regional organiser at the Unite union, told that volunteers would cover most of the proposed redundancies. "It's a bitter pill to swallow, but we understand that the alternative [to changes in the shift pattern] could have been closure."

In its first-half results published on May 25, Greencore said its cakes and desserts business had a “satisfactory first half in a difficult environment”.

It added: “The market has been driven significantly by promotional activity which, although driving sales growth, has impacted margins. Consumers generally have traded down in the category and reduced their purchasing frequency of higher tier lines.”

AAK launches first sustainable palm-based bakery shortening

Fats and oils specialist AAK has scored another industry first with the launch of a new low-saturated fat pumpable shortening containing fully-traceable, certified sustainable palm oil.

The firm, which was the first to market with fully-traceable straight (refined) palm oil in late 2008, is also preparing to launch a sustainable liquid bread fat from palm oil as part of a commitment to offering sustainable ingredients, UK marketing director Judith Murdoch

The new Akofluid shortening contains a blend of rapeseed oil and straight refined palm oil (which is fully-traceable from certified sustainable sources) plus a tiny percentage of a hard mixed-palm stearin fraction that is not (yet) available in a fully-traceable, certified form, said Murdoch.

“You need the harder fraction to produce a shortening that is sufficiently firm for bakery products such as shortcrust pastry but still lower in saturated fat [at 15%, Akofluid contains less than half the saturated fat in standard block shortenings].”

Given that the mid-fraction element of the shortening only represented a tiny proportion of the overall oils/fats blend, firms using it could claim that more than 90% the palm content in the product was directly from sustainable sources, she said.

The GreenPalm scheme (see below) could then be used to make up the difference, she suggested. “We’ll probably see more claims such as ‘This product contains palm oil of which x% is from sustainable sources’,” she predicted.

“Akofluid is a major step forward in the development of sustainable palm oil products for the food manufacturing industry. Previously there has been no sustainable option providing the blend of oils required by most manufacturers of pastry and bakery products.”

Sustainable fractions

While fully traceable, certified sustainable crude and refined palm oils were now available from firms such as AAK, Loders Croklaan and New Britain Palm Oil, most food manufacturers used more complex palm derivatives or blends, which were not yet available in a certified sustainable form, explained Murdoch.

“This is really what we’re focusing on now. We have certified sustainable olein and stearin [palm oil fractions] available already, but because customers need to get their houses in order in terms of RSPO [Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil] audits and so on before they can use these products, we’re looking at the end of the year before some of them will take deliveries.”

While straight palm can be used in biscuit dough and some other food products, 60–70% of palm oil is sold as derivatives: palm fractions such as olein and stearin; fractions of olein and stearin; palm kernel oil (PKO) or PKO derivatives, which are then blended into bakery fats and other products, said Murdoch.

GreenPalm

However, firms using complex derivatives can still contribute to sustainable production by buying GreenPalm certificates (trading at www.greenpalm.org at around $15) guaranteeing that a tonnage of oil/derivatives equivalent to the tonnage they use has been produced from sustainable sources (approved plantations are allocated one certificate for every tonne produced.)

While this means users can’t guarantee that the physical oil they are buying is from an RSPO-approved plantation, they know the tonnage they use has been made sustainably, said Murdoch.

“GreenPalm was set up precisely because it was not possible immediately to offer fully-traceable palm oil derivatives. But ultimately, it will do itself out of a job.”

Since trading began 19 months ago, more than 650,000 GreenPalm certificates have been traded online, with firms including Tesco, Asda, Unilever and Ginsters now buying certificates to cover some or all of their palm oil usage.

Large areas of a meat processing outlet in

The blaze started in a loading bay of the 3,200sq m, single-storey premises.

Workers at Forza, West 26 Industrial Estate, evacuated when the fire broke out at 2.35am on Saturday.

Nearly 40 firefighters were brought in to fight the blaze, from stations including Cleckheaton, Batley and Odsal, and were at the scene throughout the night.

According to Cleckheaton watch manager Steve Manners, “There was an added danger from liquid nitrogen tanks next to the building, which had to be kept cool.”

Around a third of the building was destroyed, and the rest of the premises was affected by smoke.

The cause of the blaze is being investigated.

Firm faces £35,000 fine for injured employee

Poultry and food processing company Moy Park has been fined tens of thousands of pounds after a maintenance engineer’s arm was crushed in an industrial conveyor.

After the incident, which happened in April 2009, Michael May sustained severe injuries and his arm was broken in several places. Grantham Magistrates’ Court fined the company £35,000 and ordered it to pay £3,115 in costs.

“This incident could have so easily been avoided if effective systems had been in place to ensure that the safety of engineers working on faults and machines was properly guarded,” said Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Inspector Judith McNulty-Green.

The HSE prosecuted Moy Park for failing to ensure the health and safety of its employees under section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company pleaded guilty to that charge and for failing to ensure that measures were in place to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery under 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

The incident happened at the company’s Anwick site, near Sleaford.

Grant to help build new sports nutrition plant

A distributor of sports nutrition products has been awarded a grant so that it can bring production in house and open a new manufacturing facility ahead of the Olympics in 2012.

The Northwest Regional Development Agency awarded a £126,750 Grant for Business Investment (GBI) to Denton-based CNP Professional, providing part of the funds to pay for a manufacturing facility in Hyde, also in Greater Manchester. GBI is part of Solutions for Business, a government package of publicly funded business support designed to help companies start and grow.

“CNP is a small, but growing, business that has ambitious, yet realistic, growth plans. Key to the successful achievement of these is creating our own, food-grade standard manufacturing facility,” said Paul Vandrill, finance director, CNP Professional.

“Working with specialist advisors to the food industry, Integrated Food Projects, we were able to source an ideal site in Hyde, and specify the fit-out and equipment needed to achieve the standard required.”

The new facility will allow the company to increase its range. Products, including flapjacks and protein bars, are due to roll off the production line in April.

Bernard Matthews considers further job cuts

Bernard Matthews could cut a further 160 staff at its Great Witchingham plant in Norfolk due to unprofitability in the whole bird market.

The company has now entered a consultation period with staff over the possible job losses, which would be phased in over a 12-month period.

Managing director Jeff Halliwell issued a statement to local media, which read: “We are two years into a four-year strategy to return the business to profitable growth and while the company's results are moving in the right direction, we are still far from the levels of returns the business should be making.

“Key to this is the fact that the frozen whole bird part of our business is currently unprofitable. Rather than exit the frozen bird market, we have carried out a detailed review of the operation and have developed a plan that ensures this part of the business returns to profitability.

“The plan requires transferring the production of frozen whole birds to our Holton site in Suffolk. The move cannot be completed until early 2011, but it is our duty to explain the rationale and consult with staff and the union as early as possible.”

There was an earlier round of job cuts at the Great Witchingham and Holton plants last summer in order to increase efficiency.

Fire at Vion Haverhill plant

A fire has caused minor disruption at Vion's Haverhill plant. Early reports have suggested extensive smoke damage following the discovery of a fire in the cooked ham sector of the facility.

Rob Smith, group communications controller for Vion, said: "The fire was discovered in a production area following a routine engineering inspection, the fire brigade attended and concluded the situation quickly.

"No-one was hurt in the incident and plans were quickly put into place to transfer the affected production to another part of the site. We are co-operating with the authorities in an investigation of the fire."

He said the damage was largely caused by smoke from the fire and production suffered only minor disruption.

Threats to jobs as Warburtons announces £25 million investment

Warburtons has announced a £25 million investment programme at its Bolton bakery. However the move threatens the jobs of around a quarter of its workforce at the site.

The planned investment involves the redevelopment of the bakery, which will result in the closure of two of its existing bread plants. The firm has revealed that 121 jobs, out of the 234 employed on the two bread lines, are at risk. Around 480 staff are employed at the bakery.

“As the two existing bread plants require upgrading, we will be creating a new single facility that will ensure we have a sustainable and efficient manufacturing facility to meet future customer requirements,” announced Warburtons.

The firm will now enter into a 90-day consultation period, followed by a 30-day consultation period, said
Ian Hodson, organising regional secretary, Bakers, Food & Allied Workers Union (BFAWU).

He told British Baker that an initial meeting took place at Warburtons on Wednesday 27 January, and staff at the bakery were subsequently informed about the possible job losses following the meeting.

He said the initial reaction to the announcement from shop stewards was that they were “pretty devastated by the news”. “It came as a shock. It was totally out of the blue, and had a real sting in the tail,” said Hodson.

The new facility will be commissioned from September 2011, enabling Warburtons to “continue to grow and develop”.

The firm has said it will be “working closely with its impacted employees and their representatives to explore all possible alternatives, during the consultation period”.

The BFAWU will hold a meeting with members on 6 February, followed by a meeting with the company to go through the consultation process on 9 February, said Hodson.

GreenPalm first for Burton’s Foods

Burton’s Foods has announced it is the first UK sweet biscuit manufacturer to acquire GreenPalm certificates for 100% of its palm oil usage.

From 1 January 2010, its usage of both palm- and palm kernel oil will be covered by the certificates, in the scheme which is internationally recognised by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

The firm has also announced that its long-term strategy is to be able to use segregated sustainable material throughout the entire product range by 2013.

British Baker has previously reported that fully traceable, segregated and sustainable refined palm oil is available from suppliers such as New Britain and can be used in biscuits, however most bakery manufacturers use palm derivatives such as olein, stearin and fractions, which are not currently available in sustainable, certified forms. This leaves manufacturers with the option of buying GreenPalm certificates.

The scheme is run by fats supplier AAK, and certificates can be purchased for every tonne of palm oil used by a company. This premium is then paid to farmers producing an equivalent amount of sustainable palm oil. Certificates cost around $8, while a tonne of palm oil is around $650.

“We are delighted to be able to kick-start 2010 with such a major step forward for our CSR programme
– baking a difference,” commented head of CSR at Burton’s Foods, Jo Shears. “Moving forward, consumers will be reassured that when purchasing some of the UK’s favourite brands such as Jammie Dodgers and Maryland they are making environmentally responsible purchasing decisions.”

CSM to acquire major US bakery manufacturer

Global bakery product supplier CSM has reached an agreement to acquire US bakery manufacturer Best Brands for a cash consideration of $510 million.

The takeover of Best Brands, one of the largest premium bakery manufacturers in the US, would make CSM the “undisputed market leader in the North American bakery supplies market”, according to the firm, with total sales in excess of $2.3 billion.

CSM said it will help strengthen its position in the segments and products that it had targeted for future growth, particularly in the in-store bakery market.

“The acquisition of Best Brands fits in our strategic journey which started in 2005,” commented CSM CEO Gerard Hoetmer. “This acquisition will strengthen our ability to deliver organic growth in the North American market in particular as we leverage opportunities to grow in the in-store and out-of-home markets.”

Best Brands achieved sales of $538 million in 2009, with around 75% of sales from the in-store arm of its business. Its product portfolio includes: laminated dough, cakes, muffins, fillings and mixes. In addition to in-store bakeries, it supplies to foodservice, retail and wholesale customers.

The transaction is expected to be completed in March 2010.

Raven Patisserie plans for growth

Essex-based cake and dessert manufacturer Raven Patisserie has moved to a new purpose-built production site in Witham.

The new premises have been designed to accommodate its “ambitious sales targets for its patisserie and bakery products”, according to the firm.

Operations director Daren McGrath said the business plans to achieve the growth through “new markets from within the group, and new business from a widening geographical area”.

A subsidiary brand of Wilkin & Sons Limited, Raven Patisserie, previously located in Braintree, has grown steadily over the last couple of years. Wilkin & Sons, known for manufacturing Tiptree fruit conserves, acquired cakes tray-bake and bar manufacturer Passionately Cakes in 2003. Passionately then joined forces with Raven Catering, to form Raven Patisserie in 2005.

“Raven has grown from strength to strength. We out-grew our premises in Braintree within two and a half years,” said McGrath. “This site in Witham is over 17,000 square feet and is large enough to handle the next phase of our growth.”

The company, which currently employs 23 staff, supplies individually wrapped cakes, ambient bars and slices, luxury round cakes, and tray bakes to a number of tea rooms and restaurants across the UK. Passionately Cakes is now the brand name for the company’s counterline ‘grab and go’ bars.

Kraft visits Cadbury’s research firm

Public ignorance about the role played by food packaging could lead to the adoption of regulatory policies that produce more waste, an expert in the field has warned.

“The primary role [of packaging] is to contain, protect and preserve food,” said Dick Searle chief executive The Packaging Federation at a conference last week on the future of the food and drink industry organised by the Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum.

“But of course it’s very visible and it’s very little understood by consumers. But the fact is modern society – cities – could not exist without packaging,” said Searle, who also sits on the government’s Food Chain Emergency Liaison Group.

He reported that packaging made up less than 2% of the UK’s total gross carbon footprint but gave a negative net figure when the amount of waste it saved was taken into account. And it uses 1.5% of the nation’s resources.

He cited the example of meat packaging, which commonly uses composite films and modified atmospheres to ensure a shelf-life of two weeks. Without this approach, the shelf-life would be just a few days and far more red meat, which has a very high carbon footprint, would be wasted, he argued.

“Frankly, the political and media focus on packaging seems to be driven by what consumers see in their bins,” he noted. “They’re not remembering that the reason for all that packaging is the goods that they’ve bought.

“The frightening statistic is that the environmental impact of food thrown away in the home has 15 times the impact of packaging waste.”

He went on to say: “It’s about time we started to look at the science. Cheap political shots at packaging are really interfering with scientific realities. Politics are now more important than food security.”

Searle argued that food waste up the supply chain, which is as high as 40–50% in some developing countries, could be reduced to the 3% common in the UK by more appropriate use of packaging. “How does anybody think that is going to be solved without using modern packaging and modern distribution?” he asked.

Quinn Glass: received planning permission in November

Appeal Court throws out Ardagh claim over Quinn site planning

Quinn Glass has welcomed the Court of Appeal's decision yesterday to reject Ardagh Glass's claim over retrospective planning permission for its controversial glass bottling and manufacturing plant in Cheshire.

The government approved planning permission for the Elton facility in November, two months after Cheshire West and Chester Council had granted it.

Ardagh's claim follows last year's court case against the council over issuing retrospective planning permission for a development that required an environmental impact assessment, which it said was not possible under European law.

But, the Appeal Court judges decided yesterday (3 February) decided that was not the case and that the legal position was clear enough so as to not warrant testimony from the council or Quinn Glass.

Quinn Glass director Adrian Curry said the firm was delighted with the decision. "It was an experienced and robust court and I'm glad they had no difficulty getting it right," he said.

Ardagh declined to comment when contacted by Packaging News.

The court said there was no justification for referring the point to the European Court of Justice and refused Ardagh leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The full story of the development of Quinn's Elton site, including last year's court case and eventual planning permission approval can be read by clicking here.

Amcor completes acquisition of Alcan Packaging

packagingnews.co.uk

Rio Tinto is still looking for a buyer for the Alcan beauty packaging operations after completing the majority of its Amcor sale.

Mining giant Rio Tinto said in a statement the sale of most of the pharmaceuticals and tobacco businesses and European and Asian food businesses of Alcan Packaging had been completed yesterday for $1.95bn (£1.2bn).

The difference between that amount and Amcor's $2bn offer relates to the deferred sale of the medical flexibles business in the US which is still under review by the Department of Justice and could take another two months to resolve.

Amcor chief executive Ken MacKenzie said the firm was now focusing on integrating the two businesses and had unveiled a new corporate identity.

"From a strategic perspective, the businesses we have acquired are strongly aligned with our nominated growth segments, and provide the ability to substantially improve the value proposition for our customers," he said.

A Rio Tinto spokesman told Packaging News this morning that it was still looking for a sale for the remaining beauty packaging division but declined to comment further.

Rio has divested $5.6bn in assets since the start of last year and described the Amcor transaction as "a significant step in the recapitalisation of our balance sheet".

Bemis' acquisition of Alcan Packaging Food Americas is expected to be completed this quarter.

Amcor's new corporate identity will be rolled out progressively over the coming months.

"With more than 300 sites across 43 countries, a strong unified brand across all our operations and geographies in an important part of our future," said MacKenzie.

Greggs leads major new UK bakery league table

Greggs held on to its position as the UK’s largest bakery retailer by the narrowest margin in British Baker’s new BB75 league table for 2010. The chain currently has 1,419 UK shops, just 10 more than sandwich chain Subway. The latter opened 125 sites last year, closing the 119 store gap a year ago to just 10. Last January, Subway predicted it would overtake Greggs by summer 2009.

Greggs’ chief executive Ken McMeikan said he was delighted to maintain Greggs’ position as the nation’s largest bakery retailer, particularly in view of Subway’s ambitious targets. Greggs plans to open a net 50-60 shops this year as it steps up expansion, with a target of 600-plus extra shops in the UK. “It is important to focus on the quality of the shops, this is not a race for space,” said McMeikan. “When we sign a contract, it is usually for 10 years, with a break at five years. We want to find really good-quality units as we are in it for the long term.” 

Subway development agent Neil Black said he was pleased with the pace of store development, “achieved despite the recession and a tightening of available finance”. Subway had also taken advantage of the competitive property market to relocate and redevelop a number of stores, he added. The expanded BB75 league table – formerly the BB Top 50 – covers the 75 biggest bakery retailers in the UK. The table shows Costa Coffee (at number three) was the fastest-growing coffee chain in the UK, adding 185 sites over 2009.

Among the big losers in 2009 were BB’s Coffee & Muffins and Coffee Republic. Both went into administration and significantly reduced their number of franchises. The new list also sees many traditional bakers holding steady and even expanding amid difficult economic conditions. l Greggs’ sales in the Christmas week were up 6.5% and like-for-like growth was 4.4%. It also saw a 3.1% rise in total sales for the four weeks to 26 December 2009. The chain sold more than one million mince pies a week, up 6% on last year. Demand for savouries was strong, with like-for-like sales up 10% and sales of its Christmas festive bakes up 23% on 2008 figures.

PROBE AFTER FACTORY DESTROYED IN BLAZE

"AN INVESTIGATION has been launched into the cause of a factory fire." Around 70 firefighters spent more than 15 hours tackling the blaze at the disused Perkins frozen food factory yesterday. Crews were called to Newstead Industrial Estate, Blurton, at around 2am after the fire broke out in the office area of the building.

Firefighters from Longton, Newcastle, Hanley, Kidsgrove, Cheadle, Stone, and Burslem worked throughout the early hours and most of day to control the blaze which spread to other parts of the factory. Firefighters had to take water from the nearby Trent and Mersey Canal and specialist equipment was drafted in from Rugeley. Residents were warned to keep their windows closed due to high levels of smoke.

Ruth Watchorn-Rice, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service's assistant area commander for Stoke-on-Trent, said: "The fire was tackled externally, due to the severity of the blaze. "We needed so many crews at the incident because there was a risk of the fire spreading to other operational factories that were in close proximity. The overnight crews did a great job though and prevented the fire from affecting the surrounding businesses.

"An investigation has started to establish the cause of the fire. However, it is likely to be prolonged due to the building being structurally unsafe." The number of crews at the scene was reduced to two at about 5pm. Ive Pope, Stafford area commander for the fire service, said 75 per cent of the building had been destroyed.He said: "The building had been empty for a number of years and was up for sale. It is a huge building with lots of different levels.

"Employees from nearby businesses started arriving for work at 4am or 5am to start up kilns and ovens. We let them into the yard as much as we could so it wouldn't interfere with the day-to-day running of the businesses. "We advised people living nearby to keep their windows closed because all smoke is toxic and has the potential to make you feel quite ill." Dave Urwin, who works at nearby Solutions Engineering, said there had been problems with people breaking into the empty building in the past. He said: "The building's been empty for a good few years now. There's been a few problems in there. Kids are always getting in." Julie Rozari, who also works at Solutions Engineering, said: "I arrived at 8am to be turned away by the police. I later got a call and was told to come back. It was very shocking."

DOUBLE EXPANSION TO BRING 110 NEW FOOD PROCESSING JOBS

"Up to 110 new jobs could be created as a result of expansion investments announced by two Fermanagh firms."

Western Brand Poultry, a supplier of poultry products to customers in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland, is investing £4.4m to expand production at its Lisnaskea site, creating 60 new jobs over the next three years.

Enniskillen-based Webtech, which produces flexible labels for the drinks industry across UK and Ireland, is investing a further £5m to expand sales to key markets with the potential for up to 50 new jobs. Invest Northern Ireland offered £405,000 and £626,400 respectively to the projects. Making the announcements, Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said: “These investments totalling almost £10m, are welcome news for Fermanagh and the wider food processing sectors here.”

Eugene Lannon, Western Brand Group managing director said: “The investment will see a substantial increase in marketing activities designed to expand business particularly in Great Britain.” Nigel McSorley, managing director of Webtech said: “This important investment in innovation, encouraged and assisted by Invest NI, is enabling us to enhance our position in the highly competitive marketplace.” Mrs Foster said the firm’s expansion would provide high quality jobs with a salary in excess of the Northern Ireland average.

She added: “Webtech NI already supplies customers in highly competitive markets such as Germany and France and is investing in technology to strengthen its overall compe titiveness.” The Minister also said that food processing has become a key manufacturing sector for Northern Ireland. “Western Brand’s Lisnaskea site has developed an impressive track record in the delivery of high quality products for markets outside Northern Ireland. This investment will accelerate further export growth,” she said.

ASSEMBLY JOINS FIGHT TO

JOBS

"THE Assembly Government has stepped in to try to save the jobs of 95 workers threatened with redundancy at Cardiff’s biggest manufacturer." Falling cake sales have left