An international delegation of commercial officers from 15 different countries were “blown away” by a recent visit to Jones Village Bakery in Wrexham.
The group, which included food specialists from offices as far afield as South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Belgium, Canada, and America, is working with the UK Government in partnership with the Welsh Government. The visit was organised by the Department for Business and Trade as part of a week-long UK tour.
Delegates were shown the two new state-of-the-art production lines installed at Jones Village Bakery’s 140,000 sq ft complex on Wrexham Industrial Estate.
The family-run firm has invested heavily following a devastating fire in August 2019. Since then it has opened a ‘super bakery’ four times the size of the one destroyed in the fire, and invested £16m in a production line to produce sourdough loaves for M&S. A further £2m was spent on one of the world’s biggest pancake production lines, which opened two months ago. The two lines combined have helped create more than 100 jobs.
The visit followed shortly after the company revealed it expects its exports to reach £5m this year, more than triple that of its 2022 sales overseas.
Jones Village Bakery managing director Robin Jones said the business was proud to be one of only two Welsh food producers chosen as champions of the sector.
“When the commercial officers go back to their respective countries, they have relationships with distributors and retailers to enable them to be equipped with knowledge and information to sell our food and drink,” he said. “It’s great exposure for Jones Village Bakery and it’s great exposure for the Welsh food industry. It’s putting the Welsh food and drink industry on the map globally.”
Jones revealed that one of the Canadian delegates thought there would be a big appetite for their American-style pancakes in North America.
“We make lovely, fluffy buttermilk pancakes using the best-in-class equipment we have imported from America. By adding our special brand of Village Bakery magic, I believe our pancakes are even better than the original American ones,” he said.
Jones also commented on the “sprinkling of Hollywood glitter at Wrexham AFC”, referencing the ongoing media attention of their local football club which was bought by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in early 2021. “There’s a real buzz about Wrexham and we want to jump on the bandwagon and export even more of our products,” he added.
Under the watchful eye of Jones Village Bakery’s master baker Paul Andrew, the visitors were given the chance to make their own sourdough bread in the test kitchen following their tour of the facility.
“I think it’s fair to say that they were totally blown away by what they’ve seen today,” said Andrew, noting that it was “essentially one of the most modern bakeries in the world” where they married the artisan skills of craft bakers with high-volume production.
“What we make in our bakeries reflects what we do here in the new product development kitchen, which is an artisan bakery, from the way we mix to the way we condition the dough, then to the way we finally mix and shape all the dough pieces down to resting and baking,” he explained.
Andrew said the delegates had loved being given a taste of what it’s like to be a proper baker for 30-45 minutes. “Hopefully, they will now become our ambassadors and tell the world about how amazing our breads are.”
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