FDBusiness.com

William Jackson Food Group is investing £40 million in a second bakery to support growth at its Jacksons bread business. Corby Borough Council has approved plans for the new bakery in Corby, which will provide additional support to Jackson’s main bakery in Hull making bread for sandwich manufacturing and food service customers. Initially around 100 new jobs will be created in Corby.

The new state-of-the-art bakery, designed specifically to make sandwich bread for sandwich manufacturers, will be built on a 10-acre site in Genner Road on the Willowbrook East Industrial Estate in Corby which the group purchased in February 2017.

CEO Norman Soutar sauys: “The Group and its family shareholders have invested significantly in the Hull bakery over recent years, and indeed continue to invest in the Hull site. We take a long-term approach to the individual businesses in the Group, allowing them time to grow and develop and we’re very much looking forward to seeing how the next chapter of the bakery’s life unfolds.”

Simon Ball, MD for Jacksons, which currently makes around two million loaves of bread a week in Hull, comments: “The new bakery will help us grow as a business and allow us to build on the great work we do in Hull. We have a brilliant team working on the expansion project, and there’s a real buzz of excitement right across our business as we have the opportunity to create something really special which will be at the forefront of bread-making in the UK.”

In addition to making 70 per cent of the bread used in UK prepared sandwiches, Jacksons makes branded bread for sale in UK supermarkets – Jackson’s Yorkshire’s Champion which has grown every year since its launch in 2012. The brand will continue to be produced at the Hull bakery, remaining true to its Yorkshire values.

Jacksons has baked bread on the same site in Hull since 1907.

William Jackson Food Group encompasses a portfolio of five food businesses and a pub in different but complementary market areas:

* Aunt Bessie’s is one of the fastest growing food brands in the UK. As well as its famous Yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes, the range also includes a growing selection of family favourites, from tasty, traditional stuffing and dumplings, to seasonal vegetables and nostalgic desserts.

* Jacksons is the leading UK sandwich bread producer, baking more than one million loaves each week. It is also the home of Yorkshire’s Champion Bread, bloomers, Farmhouse loaves, cobs and rolls, all baked to perfection in Hull using flour milled in Yorkshire.

* MyFresh Chicksands is a specialist in freshly prepared vegetables and sources ingredients through the group’s Spanish business, WJFG Europe, when they are not available in the UK. MyFresh’s Wigan site was sold to Agrial, owner of the Florette brand, in 2017.

* Abel & Cole was established 27 years ago and since then has built a reputation for supplying high quality organic vegetable boxes with excellent levels of service. It now delivers a range of groceries, all ethically sourced, and local wherever possible, to tens of thousands of homes across the country every week.

* The Food Doctor was started by nutritionists in 1999 and today sells branded healthy snacking and bread products across major retailers as well as specialist health retail outlets.

* The Ferguson Fawsitt Arms is a welcoming historic inn in the beautiful village of Walkington, East Yorkshire.