Enough bread to feed an army
Category: bread
Cost of Bread on the Rise again!
Allied Bakeries have announced this week that they are putting the price of their bread up again to grocers. This follows large financial losses in the last trading year. We don’t know yet what the increases are likely to be.
Warburtons who dd not put their prices up earlier this year will be putting their price up in January 2018.
Hovis have not made announcements in the press what their intentions are yet.
Roberts Bakery
The Next Generation
We have been sampling Roberts Bakery bloomer bread this week, in their brand new bold paper bags, and we are loving what we have tried. We love the new design which we think will appeal to the younger generation. The paper bag packaging and the quirky font style are also a big hit with us.
Pricing
The suggested selling price retail is £1.19. They are 600g each . The 4 Bloomers in their range are as follows.
The Heroic wholemeal is soft fresh and tastes just like a good wholemeal should do.
Serve up sumptuous French toast
French toast is enjoyed around the world but here in the UK the toasted breakfast treat is more lovingly known as “eggy bread”. It has been a firm favourite for a long time and can be enjoyed in many ways. Some people love to sweeten it up with a side of fruit and syrups, whereas others stick to a savoury accompaniment of a dollop of red or brown sauce.
French toast is often made from stale bread. This is not only a way to use it up and prevent it from being wasted; it actually produces the best French toast, as stale bread absorbs more of the mixture than fresh. If you have even one day old bread spare, you are ready to create the most fantastic “eggy bread”.
You don’t want your French toast to turn out limp and soggy, so there are a few steps you can take to ensure it comes out as it should. Leaving your slices out overnight to dry ensures the bread will soak up the perfect amount of egg mixture. When you come to soak the bread in the mixture you infuse it with a custard, which always tastes better when it is made with cream. Try substituting the milk for a double cream and you are sure to see and taste the difference.
Butter is a big deal with this bread dish. You need enough butter in the pan to ensure your bread is crisped instead of steamed and to give your toast that unmistakeable flavour. If you wish, you can make your toast crunchy by adding a little flour to the egg and milk before you whip it up. When frying for a large number of people, keep your already prepared slices warm in a 300 degree oven as you cook.
When your toast is ready all that is left to do is perfect it with your favourite topping. Place the slices on a platter so they overlap slightly and if desired, sweeten them up with a light sprinkling of sugar. If butter is your preference keep it softened and if syrup is your ideal choice keep it warm. As a reputable name in bread supply for the North of England businesses, we love to help our clients and customers make the best of their bread products. Follow these tips for delicious French toast and an economical way to make great use of stale bread.
Allied Bakeries £31million investment
Allied Bakeries makes £31m bakery investment17 April, 2015
By Bronya Smolen, British Baker
Allied Bakeries has made a £31m investment at its Stevenage bakery – completing its multi-million pound capital expenditure programme.
The owner of the Kingsmill brand has now finished its £210m five-year programme across the Allied Bakeries portfolio, something it claims is the largest UK bakery investment in recent years.
The company has built new bread plants in Stockport, West Bromwich, Glasgow and London, and has now rounded off the project with the new breadline which is capable of producing 9,000 loaves per hour. It has also installed new equipment.
This comes just weeks after Tesco delisted Kingsmill sliced bread from its stores. The company has also recently seen the departure of chief executive Mark Fairweather, which followed warning from ABF stating that Allied Bakeries profits would be “lower than last year”.
Nick Law, operations director at Allied Bakeries, said: “As a direct result of our investment, Allied Bakeries now has some of the most modern bakeries in the world and has a solid foundation upon which to compete in a value driven market.
“Our customers and consumers are seeing the benefits of our investment – market leading innovation, one of the most varied bakery product portfolios, and consistently high quality products. We have also enhanced the working environment for our people while significantly reducing our impact on the environment.”
A new rolls plant has been introduced at West Bromwich and a new Thins plant has also been established in Glasgow, both investments in product development.
Russell Zaple, general manager eastern region said: “The Stevenage bakery was one of the first to benefit from our investment, with the installation of our first new bread plant in 2010. We are proud to have benefited from this final phase of investment, which supports the bakery in enhancing production, developing new products, and reinforcing the high standards of consistency and quality in our baking process.”
The installation of new equipment at the site includes bulk silos, bulk ingredients systems, mixers, a tin and lid handling system, a prover and oven, a cooler, bread converyors and a slicer / bagger combo.
Allied Bakeries is a part of Associated British Foods (ABF). It also produces the Burgen, Allinson and Sunblest brands from nine production sites across the UK, as well as Kingsmill.
February Bread prices
This month has seen a fall yet again in the price of sliced bread. We are all under pressure now running our bakery businesses to compete with the undermining of sliced bread prices. Tesco who have been under the cosh have reacted to Aldi and Lidl’s lower prices on bakery products and reduced the Hovis to 78p. This week Morrisons have Hovis at 75p. I can’t understand why Hovis are putting these deals out there for the supermarkets and I honestly don’t think that they are making any money , once you have factored in credit terms, logistics and general costs like sales teams negotiating the deal in the first place and then there is the technical side of all this. There is also some account manager who has an ongoing dialogue daily to make sure that deliveries have been made correctly and there are no issues.
I understand that the bakeries need to push volume through their plants, but aren’t they being just “busy fools”?
The cost of maintenance on their plants and the new investment in machinery will take it’s toll. It’s just like running your car 24 hours a day, parts wear and servicing is needed more often, they all add big costs to a manufacturer.
The plain and simple problem is that there are too many retailers out there selling bread and knocking each other out to attract customers into their stores. They can afford to sell it cheaply as they can make margins on the other thousands of lines they sell. I blame the retailers myself , they are not selling anymore and our industry is getting put under immense pressure.
The bakers union this week have suggested a minimum wage of £10 per hour, which is fair enough, but where is the extra money coming from? It won’t be the likes of the major multiples as they only want their bread cheaper and cheaper. Something will have to give and it unfortunately will probably one of the major bakery brands, or failing that a lot of redundancies.
Finally I accept that bread is a major part of our staple diet and that families have to be able to afford it, but you cannot run a major bakery operation, pay for TV adverts, marketing, investment and daily logistics so that Tesco can have their margin (which is the lions share of the price still) and the bread sell for 75p, the margin is too fine for the bakers.
Kingsmill Great White wins award
Allied Bakeries took home the Grocery Product Launch of the Year 2014 award at the Retail Industry Awards for its Great White Loaf.
After what the company has called the “most successful launch in food FMCG this year”, the loaf received 29% of votes for the title.
The loaf, which has 7g of fibre per 100g, compared with Kingsmill Tasty Wholemeal bread, which has 6.2g of fibre per 100g, will reappear on TV screens this month, following a £6.7m two-year marketing investment into the Kingsmill Great White campaign.
Martin Garlick, category director, Allied Bakeries, said: “The launch of Kingsmill Great White has attracted new consumers to the sector and helped to stem the decline in white bread sales.
“This latest award shows Allied Bakeries understands consumer needs and category challenges across the bakery sector. Being back on TV in October will be a great way to continue to drive awareness of Kingsmill Great White.”
Kingsmill Great White had the highest weekly unit sales, highest penetration and highest percentage repeat rate in 2014 so far, compared to Walkers Pops, Cadbury Crème Egg Biscuits, Weight Watchers 0% Fat Greek Style Yoghurt, Weetabix on the go, Robinsons Squash’d, Cadbury Marvellous Mix Ups and Nestlé Toffee Crisp Cereal [Nielsen Scantrack we23.08.14.]
Kingsmill later launched the Great White Roll in July.
– See more at: http://www.bakeryinfo.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/13243/Great_White_Loaf_scoops_Industry_win.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%2BWeekly%2BIssue%2B462#sthash.qHTjpQDh.dpuf
Carlisle Bakery Depot Arrival in Cumbria
New Bakery Depot opens in September 2014
Coulton’s Bread Ltd, one of the UK’s leading distribution bakeries, is opening a new depot at Kingmoor Park, Carlisle under the Hethertons Original brand name. This will be their 5th site that also includes Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford and Newcastle.
This depot is a strategic partnership between Coultons Bread Ltd and Allied Bakeries
The new depot will be distributing the Hethertons-Original brand of loaves and also the full catalogue of Kingsmill brands including Burgen, Allinson, and Sunblest
The joint venture has created 21 jobs in the area and will provide a more fuel effective way to distribute bakery products throughout Cumbria, and reduce the carbon emmissions by using the latest Euro 6 vehicles and telemetrics technology to reduce excess mileage.
Hethertons Original depot opening date is 1st September 2014, will also be supported by a PR and marketing push throughout 2014 across trade and consumer press.
Howard Hunter, MD of Coulton’s Bread Ltd, comments:
“This is an exciting time for us all at Coultons Bread as we look to grow our 3rd party logistics of bakery products at this very challenging time in bakery. Margins have been really squeezed by the supermarkets and this has led to the larger brands looking for a more cost effective solution to distribute their products to the growing convenience sector. Having trialed the business model with Allied Bakeries for over 12 months now at our 4 other depots, we have shown that this is a more cost effective way of getting the products to the stores without the need of bakeries sending their large vehicles many miles from their bases to reach a wider audience.”
To place an order for Hethertons Original call Coulton’s Bread Ltd on 0800 160 1912.
Allied Bakeries is one of three divisions of Allied Milling and Baking, which in turn is part of Associated British Foods plc. Their household brands include Kingsmill, Burgen, Allinson and Sunblest
Click this link below to see the product range.
Mrbakestone 