FDBusiness.com

Fletchers Group of Bakeries has opened a brand new £7 million production facility at its Sheffield operations following a multi-million pound land-sale to Sainsbury’s. The new facility will supply fresh and frozen, white, brown or seeded bread rolls to retail and food service customers and houses two production lines, a new cold store and a new despatch area.

A new site entrance and two new car parks for employees have also been created. Technical standards throughout have been improved significantly in order to meet exacting customer standards.

Gordon Maclean, a recently retired Fletchers employee of 49 years, alongside the Rt. Hon. David Blunkett, MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, opening the £7 million Stamford Line.

Clegg Food Projects, which provides building and consultancy solutions for major food operations all over the country, was awarded the contract to engineer and install the Stamford facility.

Fletchers Group has seen its business revitalised under the current management, moving from a 2007-08 operating loss of almost £10 million to an operating profit of £0.6 million in the last financial year.

There are four businesses within the group – Fletchers Sheffield, LBD in Barnsley, Kara in Manchester and Grain D’Or in London. Sixty per cent of its turnover comes from the retail sector including sales to Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer. Forty percent of group turnover is within the food service sector supplying schools, local authorities, fast food outlets, restaurants and bars.