Roberts Bakery has embarked on a second major investment programme within a year at the firm’s Ilkeston site.
The family-run company has invested £1m in new machinery to ramp up production of its sandwich thins and premium speciality breads at the plant on Manners Industrial Estate. Of this, £750,000 was invested in new equipment for sandwich thin style products, including a new wrapping machine and a stacking and slicing machine for sandwich thins.
The other £250,000 was spent on equipment to enable it to treble production of its range of speciality breads, with four new energy-efficient rack ovens to be installed. The plan is to complete this latest stage in the investment by December with 10 further jobs being added to the 100 staff employed at the site.
The move follows a £2.5m investment at the site last year, when Robert installed its new sandwich thins line. The company said that more than 60 million sandwich thins have rolled off the line since the installation.
Maggie Throup MP for Erewash joined fourth-generation family member Mike Roberts at the bakery last week to celebrate the start of the new investment programme. Roberts said: “Strategic investment is fundamental to our long-term future. As a family business, we are really proud to have invested £3.5m in this site and the last year and to have created several jobs for local people. I’m looking forward to the next exciting phase for Roberts of Ilkeston and making this site a major UK manufacturer of speciality breads and sandwich thins.”
Maggie Throup added: “This new equipment will help Roberts to enhance its production capabilities and continue its heritage of making high-quality bread. It’s heartening for a local company to be making ambitious investments and helping to create secure employment for staff.”
Last month Roberts Bakery introduced a new app to encourage youngsters to improve their footballing skills.
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