Premier Foods invests £20M at Mr Kipling cake plant

13-Jan-2014 - Last updated on 13-Jan-2014 at 17:31 GMT

Premier Foods is to invest £20M in building a new production and packing line at its Barnsley site

Related tags Premier foods Investment

Premier Foods is to invest £20M in building a new production and packing line – capable of making 300M Mr Kipling cake slices a year – at its plant near Barnsley.

The new line will double the firm’s current capacity, to meet growing demand for its snack pack format of individually wrapped slices.

Taking 12 months to complete, the investment at the site in Fish Dam Lane, Carlton will involve the installation of a mixing station, oven and packing robotics, which will add significant volume to the site, said the firm.

Sophisticated packing robotics

While it remains unclear if the investment will generate new jobs, it will help to protect existing jobs, a spokesman told FoodManufacture.co.uk. About 680 people work at the site, which grows to about 980 workers during seasonal peaks.

Jason Ramsay, factory general manager for the Carlton site, said: “This investment is a strong vote of confidence by Premier Foods in the Carlton site and the Carlton workforce. We have been manufacturing Mr. Kipling cake at Carlton since 1975 and this latest news is a huge boost for all of us.”

Mr. Kipling Snack Packs, are available in six different flavours. They were introduced in 2011 to provide a convenient, on-the-go format suitable for lunchboxes and in-home eating.

Meanwhile, the firm has refused to comment on reports that Californian private equity company Gores Group is poised to buy its Hovis brand.