As bakers and their suppliers face unprecedented challenges, the British Baker team will work to keep businesses across the industry informed.

We have reached out to equipment suppliers to help them keep customers updated on the current state of their operations.

If you supply the baking industry and would like to appear as part of this update, email vince.bamford@wrbm.com

American Pan UK

All American Pan UK locations are continuing to operate and support our customers. We have worked for years to ensure that potentially disruptive events, like this virus, do not significantly affect our ability to deliver products and services. We conducted risk assessments at all our European facilities to determine and mitigate any potential supply-chain risk presented by the Covid-19 Coronavirus and can report that:

  • We do not anticipate any disruptions and remain in constant contact with our suppliers.
  • We have redundancy in our raw material supply chains as well as our own manufacturing and service centres.
  • Our manufacturing and coating operations hold significant raw material inventories to weather potential future volatility.
  • We have stock of some tins, trays and racks that are ready to ship immediately. For direct queries on these please email our team at bakeware@americanpan.com

We have also taken necessary measures to ensure our safety and well-being of our team.

Our entire team can be contacted by the normal channels, telephone, email, etc.  We are here to support our customers during this extremely demanding time in any way that we can.

Bakers Basco

(Information correct at 23 March)

During this unpredictable and unprecedented time, at Bakers Basco we are doing our best to play our part in keeping the nation’s bakery products on the move.

We know our member bakers are seeing a spike in demand far in excess than previously seen, even during the Christmas peak. Of course, known peaks are prepared for well in advance, whereas during a crisis, many parts of the supply chain are affected in multiple ways.

We know bakeries have indicated they have enough ingredients and that a reduction in product range may be implemented in order to keep up with the extreme demand. These things will continue to reassure the public at this troubling time. We’d like to reassure all Bakers Basco licensees who are currently seeing a spike in bread sales that they have the added protection of calling on equipment stored by Bakers Basco for such an event.

We’ve already supplied additional baskets and dollies in support of the pool, and all Basco teams are out identifying areas where excess equipment is ready for collection and reuse, thus improving efficiency, cutting down on fuel use and turnaround times. Our dedicated helpline is open to our members seven days a week to help with stock requests.

Brook Food Processing Equipment

(Information correct at 23 March)

What changes have you made to the services/products you offer your customers?
It is still business as (somewhat) usual at Brook Food. We have several departments where members of staff are now working from home and have therefore implemented changes to our telephone system to accommodate them. Other than this, we are here with a huge stock of equipment available with quick lead times, so trying our best to service the needs of our customers who are up against it themselves in meeting orders to aid feeding the nation.

Have you had to make changes to the way services/goods are delivered to customers?
Our delivery service has not been affected at the moment by the current circumstances, but we are being very mindful of distancing guidance.

Do you foresee this situation changing?
We’re adapting to the constantly changing situation. Should it worsen, we have confidence we can adapt to do what we can to continue providing a service, advice and support to the UK bakery industry. We have contingency plans in place to maintain supply and essential service cover.

How should customers contact you if they have urgent queries?
Usual methods of contact still apply (telephone, email, social media etc.).

Do you have any other comment to make to your customers?
We’re confident that we’re doing everything in our power to meet this challenge with an effective and proportionate response.

EPP

(Information correct at 3 April 2020)

Have you had to make any changes to the services/products you offer your customers?
While the business is operating normally we have reduced the staff in the office to an absolute minimum so this can cause some delays in communication. Our New Equipment sales team is still active and able to support customers with enquiries.  We are happy to do initial discussions by phone or video conferencing to get the ball rolling. We are in very regular contact with all our European suppliers and have a list of readily available equipment such as mixers, dividers and ovens, should customers need to increase capacity quickly.

Have you had to make changes to the way services/goods are delivered to customers?
We are still able to offer the full range of services even if some of the ways we are operating have changed. We are still able to arrange delivery of parts as normal, and our engineering team is still available to help with breakdowns, servicing and installation work

Do you foresee this situation changing?
The impact of restrictions in other countries may mean a delay on orders for special order spare parts. At the moment this isn’t a problem but if tighter restrictions are imposed by countries this can have an impact further down the component supply chain. And there is a risk of the delivery times being slightly longer than normal.

How should customers contact you if they have urgent queries?
Please refer to the contact page on our website for phone numbers for each department

Do you have any other comment to make to your customers?
EPP and its supplier network is open and working. Our suppliers across Europe are still operating and we are able to source spares pretty much as normal. As preventative measures change this can have an impact on the speed of response, so if you notice something is wearing our advice is to ensure you buy the spare parts in plenty of time. Being prepared is critical to maintaining your capability

Ilapak UK

Ilapak UK has always been committed to making sure the bakery industry can react to the requirements of the nation, never before has this become more critical than now.

Ilapak has factories around the world and is adapting to maintain the supply of its market leading flow wrappers and bagging machines with the minimal amount of disruption.

On top of this and to ensure our customers can react at the pace being dictated by this evolving solution, they hold a stock of equipment in their premises in Uxbridge.  These machines are available for immediate delivery and can be purchased or even rented on a short-term basis.

Our skilled technicians are supporting our customers whilst following all the recommended health and safety guidelines and our spares department continue to deliver with their usual efficiency.

Invicta

At the current time, Invicta is still manufacturing and supplying to all our customers in the bakery, catering and food manufacturing industries and we remain committed to continuing our services.

As always, the health and safety of our colleagues and customers remains a priority so we are operating in strict accordance to government advice and regulations.

Current and new orders
Current orders continue to be manufactured and any new business will be quoted for as usual by our dedicated team of staff.

Contacting us
Those staff who are able to do so are now working from home so the office telephone has been switched to message mode. We kindly ask that you contact us via email.

Continuing our manufacturing excellence
Manufacturing will continue as closely to our usual extent as possible while adhering to the latest government guidelines and directives for safe working practice. However, circumstances may change at any time, which may affect our services, for example – delivery of orders, fulfilment of lead times and customer enquiry responses. We will do our best to minimise any disruptions to our customers.

John Waddington, managing director

Millitec Food Systems

We are committed to continuing to offer ongoing support and provision of machinery, spare parts and servicing during these unprecedented times. We have limited availability of conveyors, diffusion production lines and other equipment available to purchase or hire.

Mono Equipment

(Information correct at 23 March)

Mono Equipment recognises the continuing impacts arising from the spread of coronavirus are of great concern for our customers, our staff and our stakeholders.

We would like to reassure you, however, that we at Mono Equipment are continually monitoring developments to ensure all our facilities remain open and fully operational to provide you with continuing expert advice and product availability.

We appreciate that the continuing spread of coronavirus brings some of the greatest challenges ever seen in the bakery and foodservice industry. We remain fully committed and are here to help all our customers, colleagues and service partners stay safe and weather these unprecedented times.

Our factory in Swansea remains fully operational and working normal hours to maintain production capabilities across all product lines. We appreciate that there are increasing restrictions on travel and face-to-face meetings, with a number of people working from home. All our team are individually contactable by phone and email.

Andrew Jones, managing director

Multivac UK

(Information correct at 9 April 2020)

There are currently no restrictions on the supply of materials to Multivac production plants, including Fritsch. The supply chains are checked daily and there have been no anomalies or reports of delayed deliveries from our suppliers.

All plants are in full production. There is no exceptional level of sick employees. Employees are allowed to travel to their place of work without restriction or work from their home office.

The transport of goods even across the national border is currently not subject to any restrictions. However, in particular cases at the European borders, controls on passenger traffic can cause backlogs in truck clearance. Air and sea freight are not affected.

Extensive measures have been taken to limit the spread of the virus at all Multivac locations.

Emergency plans are in place to continue to guarantee delivery readiness even in the event of officially mandated partial closures of plants.

For Multivac UK, our spares facility remains in full operation and we encourage customers to consider your own stock holding at this time to ensure you have a ’greater buffer’ if only for parts unique to your machine. In addition to placing spares orders by phone, they can also be ordered via our web shop.

Our team of service technicians are regionally based and we are already seeing an increase in demand as we are being asked to cover production where customers have their own engineers off sick. Our team is shift based over seven days a week and we can ensure a high level of support at this difficult time for the food industry.

Multivac will continue to support both new and existing customers through this difficult period, and while we will all inevitably be challenged by the situation, please be assured supporting our customers remains our number one priority.

As always, the whole Multivac team are on hand to take on any queries during this time, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Product Release Europe

Product Release Europe is fully committed to remaining open and supplying all existing customers and helping out with any who need additional supply during these very uncertain times. We provide a cleaning and recoating service for all types of bakeware and food contact machinery (such as divider hoppers, rollers, heat sealing, etc).

Ian Gates, managing director 

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