Allied Bakeries has made a £31m investment at its Stevenage bakery - completing its multi-million pound capital expenditure programme. 

The owner of the Kingsmill brand has now finished its £210m five-year programme across the Allied Bakeries portfolio, something it claims is the largest UK bakery investment in recent years.

The company has built new bread plants in Stockport, West Bromwich, Glasgow and London, and has now rounded off the project with the new breadline which is capable of producing 9,000 loaves per hour. It has also installed new equipment.

This comes just weeks after Tesco delisted Kingsmill sliced bread from its stores. The company has also recently seen the departure of chief executive Mark Fairweather, which followed warning from ABF stating that Allied Bakeries profits  would be “lower than last year”.

Nick Law, operations director at Allied Bakeries, said:  “As a direct result of our investment, Allied Bakeries now has some of the most modern bakeries in the world and has a solid foundation upon which to compete in a value driven market. 

“Our customers and consumers are seeing the benefits of our investment – market leading innovation, one of the most varied bakery product portfolios, and consistently high quality products. We have also enhanced the working environment for our people while significantly reducing our impact on the environment.”

A new rolls plant has been introduced at West Bromwich and a new Thins plant has also been established in Glasgow, both investments in product development.

Russell Zaple, general manager eastern region said: “The Stevenage bakery was one of the first to benefit from our investment, with the installation of our first new bread plant in 2010.  We are proud to have benefited from this final phase of investment, which supports the bakery in enhancing production, developing new products, and reinforcing the high standards of consistency and quality in our baking process.”

The installation of new equipment at the site includes bulk silos, bulk ingredients systems, mixers, a tin and lid handling system, a prover and oven, a cooler, bread converyors and a slicer / bagger combo.

Allied Bakeries is a part of Associated British Foods (ABF). It also produces the Burgen, Allinson and Sunblest brands from nine production sites across the UK, as well as Kingsmill.