English Cereals and Meat-free Foods Company to Expand
The Brecks Company, a cereals and meet-free foods business, is to invest £3m at its factory in North Yorkshire, England, in next generation production technology, which will also lead to a doubling of staff numbers. Work starts this summer on building two new 30,000 sq ft manufacturing facilities to enhance production at Selby-based Brecks, after gaining backing from Yorkshire Bank’s Leeds Financial Solutions Centre (FSC) through its Investing for Growth initiative.
Founded in 1992, Brecks employs 60 people and has a turnover of £10m. The company’s cereal products include snack bars and breakfast cereals and its meat-free products include sausages and burgers. The business has also developed a unique wood smoking process which enables it to target products specially made for the German, Swiss and Dutch markets where they are popular.
The £3m investment in the two new facilities, which are due to become operational in 2012, is expected to create 60 new jobs at Brecks, which supplies its cereal products to blue-chip global confectionery businesses and its meat-free products to household name retailers through the UK, Europe and US.
“We are one of the biggest, most productive operators in our two target sectors globally and, in terms of meat-free products, also supply the ‘meat’ or textured materials, we manufacture to other food companies,” points out James Hirst, founder and managing director of Brecks. “The investment in new facilities and technology will enable us to stay at the forefront of the industry. On the cereals side we will be developing cluster technology and, for meat-free, we will be expanding our product range and increasing capacity so as to maintain and grow our customer base.”
He continues: “People’s quest for a healthier lifestyle is driving our growth as they eat cereal bars rather than less healthy alternatives and meat-free products, where we manufacture all the ingredients, also offers medium to long-term environmental sustainability.”
Yorkshire Bank Leeds FSC Business partner, Michael Tew, who arranged the funding, says: “The Brecks Company is a huge Yorkshire success story, a business at the global forefront of its sector. We are pleased to be supporting them through our Investing for Growth initiative and creating more badly-needed jobs in the private sector.”
Yorkshire Bank’s Investing for Growth initiative enables businesses to take loan repayment holidays, interest-only repayments and extended loan and credit terms to take advantage of quality growth opportunities. Businesses signing up to the package can re-invest the cash into their operation for expansion, new staff, equipment, machinery and commercial development.
