London-based Grain D’Or has completed a £4m expansion of its manufacturing facilities.

The expansion is hoped to increase production capacity by 40%, as well as enhance technical standards.

The business, part of the Fletchers Group of Bakeries, which specialises in continental sweet bakery products and speciality breads, has converted three industrial units into a new state-of-the-art bakery facility and dispatch centre.

Two new food production areas will cater for the company’s specialist breads and sweet bakery product contracts, while the dispatch centre allows for greater flexibility for cold storage and distribution.

Working with Chalcroft Construction on the six-month project, 40 permanent jobs have been created.

Simon Sloan, Grain D’Or general manager, said: “This project has allowed Grain D’Or to increase its capacity by almost double, continued its sector-leading technical standards and retained high levels of quality and food safety.

“As a company, the increased scale of food production area provides us with the ability to offer a wider range of products to our customers and become a more efficient and flexible operation within the market.

“We can also respond more easily to seasonal volume and growth, which often dictates the greater profit-yielding market growth areas for this industry to tap into.”

The development now brings Grain D’Or’s business premises for retail and food service sectors at Townsend Industrial Estate in Park Close NW10, to more than 100,000sq ft.

Ed Getley, contracts manager for Chalcroft, said: “The conversion project completed for Grain D’Or involved a wide variety of construction disciplines, including external works such as drainage and the installation of services for equipment installers, as well as alterations to the fabric of the existing units.”

An additional, second phase of the investment project, worth £250,000, will add 6,000sq ft of dry goods storage office accommodation and a new food development facility. It is expected to be completed in August next year.

Grain D’Or’s own-label products are supplied to major retailers and foodservice customers in the UK, as well as the Republic of Ireland, Scandinavia and mainland Europe.

Its product portfolio includes pains au chocolat, pains au raisin, muffins, mini muffins and chocolate twists. Savoury products include croissants and cheese twists.

Established in 1980, Grain D’Or is one of the major importers of Normandy butter - a key ingredient in top croissants - and, as part of the Fletchers Group, is the UK’s biggest importer of Canadian blueberries.