Doubling its sales has prompted handmade speciality bread and cake producer The Bread Factory to build a new production facility.

The high-end wholesale baker, which has been baking breads and morning goods for more than 17 years, needed more space after sales rose in the last two years.

The Bread Factory spent £780,000 on the new 15,000sq m production area, which includes a new mezzanine floor to utilise space above a production area; handmade morning goods are now prepared on the ground floor kitchen and high-end cakes are baked on the first floor.

The new factory – just 500 yards away from an existing site it owns at West Hendon – has doubled The Bread Factory’s capacity and prompted it to hire more staff, taking the total to 140.

The company bakes a range of 300 handmade products, including British, French, Italian, sourdough breads, bread rolls, speciality baps, sandwich loaves and morning goods. Its client list includes first-class hotels and high-end retailers, such as The Dorchester Hotel, The Fat Duck at Bray, Le Gavroche, and Fortnum & Mason.

MD Tom Mulner said: “We’re doing more seeded breads and German rye bread, while our handpiped muffin business has grown quite a bit. I think demand for artisan, quality bread in general is growing.”

The company will also open its fourth branch of neighbourhood bakery outlet Gail’s, in Clapham in June. It already has shops in Hampstead, Portabello and St John’s Wood.

MTC Insulation Solutions were the food construction contractors behind the new factory