Cranswick Country Foods Plc has created 150 jobs with its new Yorkshire Baker factory.

Created as part of a £12m development, the 6,000sq m Yorkshire Baker factory, Malton, will be opened today by Cathy Chapman, director of food product development and direction at Marks and Spencer.

According to Melanie Hanks, marketing manager for Yorkshire Baker, the factory will employ up to 300 people in the future as it continues to, adding that the company "looks forward to bringing continued employment opportunities to Malton".

The Norton Grove Industrial Estate in Scarborough Road, Malton, north Yorkshire, was secured last October following increasing demand for Yorkshire Baker’s products, as well as a new contract established with Marks & Spencer.

The factory produces handmade all-butter pastry sausage rolls, quiche, pies and pasties.

Jim Brisby, sales and marketing director, added: “This is an exciting venture for us both and we are delighted to be working together, buildings upon Cranswick’s ethos of working with artisan producers to take market leading products to a much wider consumer audience in modern and efficient facilities.

“The product quality and methodology remains the same– we are just enabling the products to be available on a wider scale nationwide. A lot of time and investment has gone into this new facility, and it is a real credit to all involved. The support from Marks and Spencer has been absolutely tremendous and we are delighted to be officially opened.”

Cranswick and Yorkshire Baker formed a joint venture company last year, with production commencing in the spring.

Commenting on the partnership, Gill Ridgard, founder of Yorkshire Baker, said: “This place is a glorified kitchen. We are absolutely retaining the artisan nature of making by hand. We have invested in some machinery – but the machines won’t dictate to us. We will keep the texture of our products and the machinery does exactly what we want it to do, they are simply taking on some of the menial tasks. This is not mass manufactured product.

“Our approach is unique but clear – we have simply up scaled artisan production to widen our product portfolio and increase distribution capacity throughout the UK." 

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