Jackson Bakery’s £1.6M extension completed this year

By Freddie Dawson

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Clegg food projects Food Industry

A lot of loaves: The Hull factory produces more than 1M bread loaves each week.
A lot of loaves: The Hull factory produces more than 1M bread loaves each week.
Work on a £1.6M extension to Hull-based Jackson’s Bakery is due to be completed in December this year.

The investment at the bakery, part of the William Jackson Food Group, is in response to increased customer demand, said a spokesman for the firm in June.

Production at the facility, which started this spring, is continuing during the development work carried out by Clegg Food Projects. The Hull factory produces more than 1M bread loaves each week.

Clegg’s business development director, John Moxon told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “We’re building an extension to a factory, so we’re working on a factory in operation. The main things we do to manage that situation is we do a certain amount of food safe screening.

Very robust

We screen using proper air tight seals. We don’t just put up a bit of polythene and sellotape it to the wall. We’ll use insulated panels that are washable and cleanable.

“They’ll be there for a few months so they’re very robust. People can’t just peel them down and make their way into the construction area and vice-versa.”

Combining construction and manufacturing in the same space involved flexibility, communication and coordination, he added.

After winning a string of contracts over the past 12 months, Clegg claims the UK food manufacturing sector is surviving the economic downturn relatively unscathed.

“The food industry is reasonably recession-proof and it’s true that even in a recession, people still have to eat,”​ said Steve Giltrap, the firm’s md.

“As a specialist provider of design and construction in the food and drink manufacturing and storage sector, Clegg Food Projects has continued to win and complete a number of large scale food projects around the UK​,” he added.

Meanwhile, in June Jackson’s Bakery announced plans to spend £5.5M on two new buildings and complementary machinery at its existing site, potentially creating up to 40 new jobs.

330 staff

The firm employs 330 staff and sells bread products to sandwich producers, restaurants, coffee shops, distributors and retailers in 29 different countries, including Lebanon and Hong Kong.

Jackson’s has already invested over £20M in its bakery’s operations over the past eight years.

In June, the firm’s md, James Watson said: “We are growing our business, both with existing and new customers at home and abroad, and in order to maintain this success story we need to expand to increase our capacity.”

Jackson’s has been based at the same site since 1907.

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