Wrights invests £6M in doughnut and cookie plant
The 3,716m2 plant in Weston Road, Crewe, is now fully operational, with shifts operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It produces 144 individual products for major foodservice, bakery and retail customers and employs 80 staff.
The factory features fully automated manufacturing equipment, including VMI mixers, depositor lines, proofers, automated in-line fryers, ultrasonic robotic cutting equipment, and rack ovens.
Other facilities include low-care and high-care production zones, first floor offices, staff training areas and a canteen.
Éclairs and cakes
The firm, which makes sweet and savoury pastries, pies, sandwiches and ethnic foods, balances mass-produced lines against a number of hand-crafted products such as éclairs and cakes.
A dry store for ingredients and expansive freezer facilities has also been installed at the site.
“We are already seeing the benefits of our investment in the confectionery plant with improved efficiencies, less waste, better consistency and the flexibility to produce a much wider range of quality products for our growing customer base,” said ceo and chairman Peter Wright.
‘Flexibility to diversify’
“The factory will bring numerous advantages as the business develops, giving us the flexibility to diversify in the future and work with customers to manufacture innovative products to their bespoke requirements and specification.”
Wrights customers include quick service restaurants, coffee shops and independent bakery shops. It supplies frozen, part-baked and finished products through a network of national wholesale distributors, such as Bako UK.
The company’s retail customers include a major convenience store chain, which has worked with Wrights food development team to produce a range of own-label desserts. It also supplies frozen cookies, ring doughnuts and brownies for a leading pizza delivery company.
Its other lines include thaw-and-serve dairy cream cakes, cupcakes, scones, mince pies and fruit tarts.
