“Consumers are looking for a cake with immediate wow factor – something wonderful that takes their breath away and creates that sense of celebration,” says Susanne Edler of the Anglo-Austrian Patisserie and Gloriette Patisserie in London. “Our experience indicates that consumers want quality celebration cakes with high levels of individuality and creativity that have a visual impact.”

MAY

IMA Food Equipment (St Albans) says bakers increasingly need dividers that can handle “challenging” doughs, such as ciabatta, focaccia, Scottish rolls and gluten-free doughs. The company supplies

By imitating the movement and touch of a baker’s hand, Brook Food (Minehead, Somerset) says its Record Bun Divider Moulders (BDMs) bring consistent product quality and time-saving benefits.

European Process Plant (Epsom, Surrey) has extended the Koenig Mini Rex range with additional enhancements. The Mini Rex two-pocket divider is now available to customers with a single-phase energy supply. Previously, a three-phase supply was necessary.

Versatility and consistency of product are key when it comes to bakery equipment, and this is particularly true of the type of dividers and bread moulders the baker chooses.

Zurich airport will play host to a special event celebrating the world of chocolate later this year. Held from 15 September to 31 October, 2006, the Soul of Chocolate exhibition will feature several stands providing passengers with information about the history, origin, processing and refinement of chocolate, as well as samples to taste.

The baking industry launched a public relations offensive this week in a bid to get bread back into the shopping baskets of women hooked on fad diets that outlaw carbohydrate consumption.

Charities in the UK and abroad, including Cancer Research and Macmillan Nurses, have benefited from a generous donation made by Walton-on-Thames bakery owner Bill Heffernan in memory of his wife, Anne, who died from the disease in January this year, aged 61.

Capitalising on the growing trend for ‘retro’ comfort food, ingredients supplier Macphie has launched a new Shortbread Mix. Shortbread has a long history, but Macphie says it has updated the Scottish delicacy for the 21st Century.

“A cake is suitable for any gender, any age, any faith – everyone would be happy to receive a cake,” is Julian Day’s simple analysis of why his mail-order cakes business, Meg Rivers, is doing so well.

Bako, a top name in bakery wholesale with five branches nationwide, is branching out into supplying foodservice.

Leonard Wadge, honorary life president of wholesaler Bako’s London and south east region died on Thursday, 11 May, 2006.

Marks & SPENCER’s efforts to develop a ‘caring’ image helped it triumph at this year’s Sammies – the annual British Sandwich Industry Awards.

Ireland’s largest shopping centre café operator, BB’s Coffee & Muffins, is to offer franchises of its brand in Ireland.

Associated British Foods (ABF) has agreed to buy the largest cane sugar producer in Africa in a bid to take advantage of changes to the EU sugar regime.

For the third year running California Raisins is running its Innovation Award, to find the most creative use of California Raisins in the UK.

Confectionery company Lees Foods says is on the acquisition trail to further boost its profile in the bakery industry after recording bumper profits last year.

The difference between costing and pricing is the topic of a business day, which aims to encourage bakers to ask themselves some tough questions.

Cornish Pasty supplier Brittons of Devon has been bought from owner Quanon by its existing senior management, Steve Hathaway, Paul Whitaker and John Savege, for an undisclosed sum.

The Federation of Bakers expects delays in resolving two legislative issues facing the sector – folic acid fortification and bread weights regulation. Director Gordon Polson told British Baker he anticipates a two-month delay before a public consultation into the possible fortification of flour with folic acid starts in the UK.

Quiche manufacturer Thomas Food Group is launching a major investment programme to take a bigger slice of the premium quiche market.

Danny Kluman has become MD of ingredients supplier Kluman & Balter. He takes over from his father Geoff Kluman, who becomes chairman.

Bakery supplier Bako London has revealed it is overhauling its business, to make it more competitive on price, service, availability and range. The £20m turnover regional wholesaler, which serves 2,000 customers in the south east, plans to boost its buying power, focusing on markets which do not compete with its core bakery business, chairman Stuart Earl told British Baker.

Three senior personnel have joined the Liverpool headquarters of ingredients supplier Renshaw, now part of the Real Good Food company.

Desserts company Vittles Foods (Leicester) says it has had an eager response to its new Olive Oil and Polenta Cake.

BakeMark UK (Wirral, Merseyside) has launched a new flapjack in response to growing consumer demand for ‘better-for-you’ snacks.

Apuro (Solihull) has extended its Quattro range of heavy-duty planetary mixers with the addition of two larger models – the QPM30 and QPM40.

Pukka Pies (Leicester) has introduced a new saveloy sausage to its range of catering sausages. The new saveloys are batch-produced by Pukka’s team of butchers.

UK Point of Sale (Heaton Mersey, Stockport) has launched a range of multi-tier leaflet dispensers that can be connected to create different shaped displays.

Applied Weighing (Reading), supplier of industrial weighing systems, has recently introduced a high-speed check weigher. The machine is powered by a 920i process controller and can be combined with lead on/lead off conveyors, barcoders and metal detection equipment.

Lancashire-based BNW Bakery Services says its BW5 machine can be used for wrapping bread, cake and flour confectionery.

The Burford Tape Closure system has been designed to produce a reliable tamper-evident closure. Burford says it can be used with most makes of semi- and fully-automatic bagging systems.

Zeelandia (Billericay, Essex) says it can offer plant bakers a range of services, from ingre-dients to engineering.

PICKING Asda’s bakery director Huw Edwards says Asda is generally pretty happy with its plant bread suppliers and the service they offer. But Edwards believes that automated selection of products by plant bakers for store deliveries – as opposed to the current system of manual picking – may lead to greater accuracy when orders are delivered at the supermarket’s back door.

The introduction of a new low-glucose powdered fondant by Surafti UK is one of the company’s responses to market changes, says Paul Martin, Surafti UK’s technical sales manager. For Martin, the new fondant, Flemings Powdered Fondant LG, which has been under development for the past 12 months complete with trialling and analysis, is another example of Surafti’s special service .

Almost every day, we older folk say, “How the world has changed!” As an example, just look at the volume of products we now produce daily with far less staff than, say, 20 years ago. Although, at the rate people are flooding into our country, they may soon pass a law to make us scrap our machinery, so that we can employ more people to keep them off the streets.

Forcing consumers to eat more healthily could result in a backlash, with consu-mers rejecting foods where substantial cuts in salt and fat content have been made or where recipe formulation is perceived to have had an unacceptable impact on flavour.

When people eulogise about the need to diversify a craft retail bakery business, few can claim to have taken it as much to heart as Dunns of Crouch End. French farmers’ markets, gay wedding cakes and, perhaps more ill-advisedly, letting a film crew run amok, destroying the shop, are just a few of the ways it has met the challenges facing bakers on the high street.

Some things never cease to amaze me. They are so blindingly obvious that you think, how can that possibly be? We are worried sick about the number of people carrying knives but do NOTHING to ban them. They are as deadly as guns, so why are we afraid of zero tolerance on something so dangerous?

Bakers were urged to support the work of food and drink skills sector council Improve at the Federation of Bakers’ (FoB) conference. Warburtons’ director Brett Warburton told delegates the organisation had a growing amount of influence, with initiatives including skills academies being developed, which bakers must help mould to their requirements.

The Federation of Bakers (FoB) reported a trading loss of £29,278 for the year to 31 March 2006 as it held its AGM on 10 May.

Sainsbury’s has seen an 8% rise in bakery sales value over the last year, driven by growth in in-store bakery sales, according to trading director Mike Coupe.

“Live issues in the wider food industry”, such as labelling and health, were debated at the Federation of Bakers’ (FoB) conference last week, as a panel session wrapped up the day’s proceedings.

Allied Bakeries last week recalled several batches of bread rolls due to possible contamination with small pieces of metal.

Sandwich chain Benjys is locked in a dispute with a number of its Benjys Delivered franchise operators, which deliver sandwiches to offices and other workplaces. Some 33 of its 116 franchisees, which operate delivery vans, joined forces to issue a 29-page letter to Benjys Group at the beginning of last month, outlining various grievances and demanding confidential business figures.

Time is running out to apply for three prestigious baking industry training opportunities, administered by the Worshipful Company of Bakers.

Gordon Shaw, commercial director of Fleming Howden sadly died on Tuesday morning May 16. He had been suffering from cancer since Christmas.

Retail bakery chain Cooks, formerly Three Cooks, has reduced its estate to 180 stores as it focuses on boosting profitability. The chain, which is the UK’s third-largest retail bakery chain after Greggs and Lyndale Foods, has closed around 60 stores over the last 18 months. It is refurbishing those stores which it believes have a long-term future and closing those that don’t, chairman Geoff Peppiatt told British Baker.

Asda is enjoying increased sales of bread after completing the roll-out of a new store-specific merchandising system this month, according to bakery director Huw Edwards.

Industry rumours that speciality baking companies Avance and the French Croissant Company are up for sale have been dismissed by their owner John Lister, following the sale of sister company New Primebake last month.

Bakery chain Greggs says it is taking action to drive sales growth, including a TV advertising campaign, new promotional initiatives and the launch of new healthy products, following a drop in year-on-year profits.

Food Design (Harrogate, Yorks) has announced it now uses non-hydrogenated vegetable oils in the manufacture of its fudge and toffee ingredients. The company says this healthy option retains taste and eye appeal while offering high performance.

Macphie (Glenbervie, Scotland) has launched premium Soft & Chewy Cookie Mix in four flavours, made with non-hydrogenated fat. The ‘add-water’ mixes are available in plain, chocolate, chocolate chunk and oat & raisin.

Dawn Foods (Evesham, Worcs) supplies the Adore brand, which comprises four lines of individually-wrapped premium bakery products: muffins, brownies, indulgence cakes and US-style cookies, available in a variety of flavours.

Kanomix from Zeelandia (Billericay, Essex) is named after a traditional Dutch cookie product and can be used to create cookies with a vanilla and buttery taste.

Rich’s (Fareham, Hampshire) Premier range of bake-off cookies is aimed at the top end of the market.

Renshaw (Liverpool, Merseyside) offers a range of ingredients to help bakers make value-added cookies.

For bakers who are unable to bake cookies from scratch, McDougalls Cookie Mixes from RHM (Reading) are described as quick and easy to use and deliver a ‘home-made’ taste.

New Manhattan Cookie Mix from Cereform (Northampton) produces a US-style cookie, which offers a taste and texture more suited to the UK market, says the company. Available in chocolate or plain, bakers can add fruit, nuts or chocolate to the mix to give a signature cookie.

BakeMark UK (Wirral, Merseyside) has worked with Nestlé to launch a range of licenced cookies, which target the trend for indulgent treats.

The Byron Bay Cookie Company was founded by Maggi Miles and Gary Lines, fashion industry workers who returned to their native Australia after six years in New York. While considering their next business venture, the couple started baking for local markets under the name Pickles, Pies and Petticoats.

Forget sitting down for tea and biscuits, it seems everyone wants a cookie-on-the-go these days. According to TNS, the freshly baked cookie market was worth a healthy £26.9m in the 52 weeks to April 23, 2006 – up 4.8% year-on-year. Influenced by the coffee shop sector, consumers are seeking individual treats in large formats and innovative flavours.

RHM is celebrating the 120th anniversary of its ‘nourishing and nice’ Hovis brand this month, with a £1m advertising campaign.

At the National Associa-tion of Master Bakers (NA) conference, held at the May Bank Holiday weekend, in Stratford-upon-Avon, social events played an important part.

Q. Tell me about the background of Cereform.

Many congratulations to Hovis on its 120th birthday! And particular congratulations to all the millers and bakers who have maintained the standard over the years, enabling the loaf to hold such a prominent place in our hearts – and on the shelves of course.

Latin American bakery firm Bimbo is entering the Chinese market through the acquisition of Beijing Panrico Food Processing Center from Spain’s Panrico, in a deal valued at E9.2m. The local company produces a variety of baked goods, including chocolate-filled bread buns; in Spain Panrico’s Bollycao filled buns are market leader.

British Sugar has launched BS Connect, an extranet service designed to provide its custo-mers with information to suit their individual requirements.

Capacity at Dean’s of Huntly will increase by 70% once construction of a new production area is completed this summer as part of a three-stage, £1.6 million investment programme, writes Ian Martin.

American broadcaster CNN was inspired by the recent visit of American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the north-west to recommend activities for her to enjoy during her stay.

Three flour mills were the principal contributors to Carr’s Milling Industries’ food division seeing an 18% rise in pre-tax profits to £4.57m, in the 26 weeks to March 4, 2006. Sales were up over 40% to £110.4m.

A LOCAL craft baker says he is fighting to save his livelihood after finding out bakery take-away giant Greggs has bought the shop next door to his.

Retail union Usdaw has welcomed a commitment from Prime Minister Tony Blair to listen to its case against further extension of Sunday shopping hours for larger stores.

Over 500 craft bakers across the UK are taking part in National Doughnut Week this week, sel-ling doughnuts to raise money for charity The Children’s Trust.

Cake giant Inter Link had its first major setback last week as it issued a surprise profit warning, blaming unsuccessful promotional activity in April.

A NORFOLK bakery has been fined a total of £2,000 after a contaminated bread roll was delivered to a canteen at Norwich City Hall – headquarters of Norwich Environmental Health Department.

CHESHIRE bakery Chatwins helped a pensioner who had been coming into the store for more than 80 years celebrate her 100th birthday.

Bakers have welcomed news this week that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) will refer the supply of groceries by UK retailers to the Competition Commission (CC) for investigation. National Association of Master Bakers (NA) chief executive David Smith told British Baker: “This is a lot more than we dared hope for. There will be a full inquiry.”

British Bakeries is to relaunch its wholemeal Hovis loaves as it celebrates the 120th birthday of the Hovis brand.

Hot on the heels of Japanese Brain Buns (British Baker, April 21, pg 9) comes another tale of baking with a cerebral twist. This time it takes the improbable form of a professor of cognitive science dressed in bakers’ whites doing a shift at a supermarket in-store bakery.

Zeelandia (Billericay, Essex) supplies release agents and divider oils to craft bakers and industrial manufacturers. The Carlo water-in-oil emulsion benefits from a high viscosity, allowing adhesion and good spraying properties, says the company. Designed for greasing bread tins, it has a beneficial effect on the colour of the bread crust.

JBS (Market Deeping, Peterborough) has introduced a flexible sheeting and curling unit for its Rollmaster range of roll plant. The unit’s horizontal sheeter replaces the conventional vertical unit and is already operational in a customer’s plant in South Africa.

Kluman & Balter (Waltham Cross, Herts) offers a range of ingredients for bread plants, from divider oil to all-vegetable bread fat, plus a range of seeds and bread dressings.

The Pietroberto Bread Plant from Norbake (Batley, West Yorks) can produce bloomers, tinned bread and full-sized French sticks, among others, and 150 of the units are already in service in the UK.

Baker Perkins (Peterborough), formerly APV Baker, is offering an upgraded control system for Tweedy mixers. The company says that most Tweedy mixers in daily use are mechanically sound, but their control systems are obsolete and provide limited functionality. Upgrading these improves performance and extends the life of the machine.

The Kemper Twin Star, available from Eurobake (Bolton) is a tow row, fully-automatic dough dividing and moulding machine, which produces round, long moulded and folded rolls to handmade quality. The machine can produce between 1,600 and 3,000 pieces an hour.

Koenig, the specialist manufacturer of automatic roll plants, has recently introduced what it says is its most versatile industrial roll plant yet.

“Everyone’s looking for something different,” says Chris Huish of Mono. “There’s a big swing towards artisan-type bread and rolls to give bakers a point of difference and consumers something new.” Swansea-based Mono acts as agent for Austrian firm Baktec, which supplies roll plants across Europe. These plants, with capacities ranging from 2,500-18,000 units an hour, are the ideal way for medium-to-large bakeries to join the artisanal roll revolution, says Mr Huish.

With the sale of its quiche manufacturing plant to The Food Investment Group at the end of January, Milton Keynes-based Giles Foods closed the door on nearly 30 years of producing and selling chilled quiches. But why sell a successful business that had grown by 150% in its previous year? The answer, says Giles, is added-value bread.

The Chorleywood Bread Process. Written by Stanley Cauvain and Linda Young

The other day I was reading that MRSA has increased by some 22% in our hospitals. It crossed my mind that, while it is appalling and beyond my comprehension that such a disgusting lack of cleanliness should be allowed, it may just be a fiendishly clever plot by the hospitals to get themselves new customers.

Northern Cyprus is not the best country for anyone who enjoys good food and expects high levels of quality. Years of underinvestment has left the food industry woefully lacking in the wide variety of raw materials available in the UK and, indeed, most other European countries.

Two weeks ago, one of Ireland’s leading proponents of artisan breads moved to a new and much larger bakery in Cork city, which he hopes will allow him to continue expanding.

This week the National Association of Master Bakers’ (NA) conference made history – in more ways than one (pgs 3, 8, 9). Firstly, it appointed its first ever lady president, Shirley Ryder. Shirley has a strong character, a ready laugh and an ambition to increase membership by diversifying appeal towards allied businesses, such as sandwich shops.

PROBLEMS caused by the NA’s declining membership were highlighted at the conference. Chairman Noel Grout told delegates the NA currently has 804 members, down 51 on the same time last year.

THE NA has saved craft bakers at least £45million over the last year, said chairman Noel Grout. It has saved the craft industry an estimated £10m a year and £10m in set up costs by gaining a concession from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on EU Animal By Products Regulations.

Shirley Ryder was installed as the NA's 112th president at its annual conference. Mrs Ryder succeeds Colin Fulcher, who runs the Lilleys Bakery chain in Essex.

NA MEMBERS passed a resolution to explore co-opting an under-35-year-old director on to its board at its annual conference last weekend. The motion, to recruit an extra director, aged under 35, was brought by London-based craft baker Christopher Freeman, who said he wanted to send a message to young members that they were the lifeblood of the NA.

The National Association of Master Bakers’ (NA) 119th annual conference was held in Stratford from April 28 to May 1 and attracted 109 delegates, reports Anne Bruce.

Catering company Compass Group has appointed Ian El-Mokadem as CEO of its UK & Ireland Division. He was previously md of telecommunications company Onetel. He will join Compass on May 8.

Greencore Sandwiches said it was set for further growth, following its acquisition of the Oldfields sandwich business last year (British Baker, October 14, 2005, pg 3). The acquisition of Oldfields had given Greencore Sandwiches access to new skills and space, said marketing director Richard Esau.

Belgian food group Vandemoortele says it is planning to invest over E90m in extra capacity this year, with expansion into central and eastern Europe a priority.

A CAR, carrying a 60lb cake, left Somerset on Tuesday, April 18, heading for Buckingham Palace and the 80th birthday celebrations of the Queen.

RAPIDLY expanding bakery supplier Country Style Foods has bought the former Schwan Global Cake Company frozen desserts factory in Bridlington, which was closed last month. Leeds-based Country Style said it had no immediate plans to re-open the site, following its asset purchase from administrators.

Latest sandwich sales figures show a hike in sales of baguettes in supermarkets and continued growth in wraps.

British Bakeries is celebrating the 120th anniversary of its Hovis brand with limited edition packaging introduced as part of a £1m advertising campaign.

The NEW President of the National Association of Master Bakers (NA) told delegates the organisation must diversify, as she started her year in office at its annual conference in Stratford last weekend.

The NEW President of the National Association of Master Bakers (NA) told delegates the organisation must diversify, as she started her year in office at its annual conference in Stratford last weekend.

Icelandic fresh foods company Bakkavör Group has snapped up speciality bread producer New Primebake and chilled manufacturer Laurens Patisseries in a major spending spree in the added-value bakery sector in the UK.