Premier Foods to add 80 jobs as £20m Mr Kipling production line opens

Picture: David Parry/PAPicture: David Parry/PA
Picture: David Parry/PA
A new £20m hi-tech production line at the Mr Kipling bakery in Barnsley is set to add 80 jobs to town.

Premier Foods, owner of the sector-leading cake brand, officially opened the bakery expansion in Carlton this morning.

The state-of-the-art facility will produce 300 million Mr Kipling snack pack cake slices a year, Premier Foods chief executive Gavin Darby said.

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This more than doubles the company’s capacity for individual cakes, with its existing snack pack line in Stoke producing 240 million annually.

Some of Mr Kipling’s best-known products have been manufactured in Carlton since 1975, including its battenberg cake and fondant fancies.

The currently employs 750 full-time staff - rising to 1,500 seasonally. A further 80 full-time skilled jobs will be added over the next two years.

Mr Darby told The Yorkshire Post that the investment is a “huge vote of confidence” in the region.

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He said: “£20m is a large amount of money. We chose to spend our it here because we’ve got a good, loyal, committed workforce and we knew they could step up to the plate.”

The production line is uses advanced technology and robotics, requiring highly-skilled workers, he said.

“Because it’s such a hi-tech line, they are disproportionately skilled jobs,” Mr Darby said.

“That’s what we all want; we want to be employing more people, but it’s even more exciting we’re employing people with a good and high level of technical skill.”

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Earlier this year, Premier Foods committed to doubling the number of apprentices in the company and invested in a refurbished training centre in Carlton, the largest of its three bakeries.

The cake sector is worth around £1bn in the UK, of which Mr Kipling has around 17 per cent. Mr Kipling is Premier Foods’ largest brand, accounting for just under a fifth of its £683.7m branded sales.

Elizabeth Truss, secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, attended the launch and met some of Premier Foods’ recently-recruited apprentices.

She said: “Our food manufacturing sector is bigger than cars and aerospace combined, generating over £100 billion for the economy. Iconic British brands like Mr. Kipling are key to its success.

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“The new line is not only a boost to Yorkshire‟s economy but will also ensure our UK farmers and producers‟ benefit from the company‟s commitment to source the majority of its ingredients from British suppliers.”

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