Wrexham-based manufacturer Jones Village Bakery has begun exporting morning goods and bread to Japan.
The range – which include the company’s signature Welsh cakes along with its Welsh Batch and Super Seeded loaf varieties and its white barms – is aimed at British expats living in Japan and local consumers with a taste for UK products.
This latest export deal for Jones Village Bakery came via Tokyo-based British entrepreneur Mark Spencer, who contacted the firm after trying its Welsh cakes on a stand run by the Welsh Government at a trade show in Singapore.
“He loved them,” said Jones Village Bakery commercial controller Glen Marriott. “Mark Spencer and his family have lived in Japan for years and he has a retail shop in Tokyo where he sells British products.”
“Japan was a country that we were looking to target as we continue to expand our export operation so this is very timely,” added Marriott, noting that Spencer is currently looking to approach all supermarkets in the country which potentially opens doors to a whole new market.
Jones Village Bakery currently exports to 14 countries including Australia, the Middle East and several European nations, helping to create around 100 new jobs. Last May, it was honoured with a King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade, having achieved record export growth in recent years. “Having a King’s Award helps us because it links back to the monarchy and has that prestige attached to it,” commented Marriott.
Jones Village Bakery CEO Simon Thorpe said the Japan export deal “speaks volumes about the quality of the product and that desire to enjoy something that is traditionally Welsh”. “There is clearly an appetite for quality British products which have a certain cachet in Japan,” he added.
The brand’s Welsh cakes – made using a traditional recipe – had always been a hero product within Jones Village Bakery’s portfolio, noted Thorpe, describing them as “almost like a talisman which marked our growth into the retail sphere”.
The CEO also highlighted a “delicious irony” in the fact that the Wrexham supplier was now producing Japanese-style milk buns for M&S stores in the UK, with a plan to export these to Australia and the Middle East at well – “but not the Land of the Rising Sun yet”.
Jones Village Bakery follows the traditional Tangzhong method which includes use of boiled milk to make the “beautifully soft eat” buns. “It’s a process that is adding another dimension to our range from a quality perspective and I want to pay tribute to our new product development team who have excelled themselves once again,” expressed Thorpe.
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