Ingredients supplier Bakels has invested £1.5 million on a new line to produce a range of caramels aimed at the global market.

The new product range will be branded as “true caramel”, which the company claimed reflects the fact they are produced through a “traditional high temperature boiling process, using traditional ingredients”.

The company will be able to produce a range of caramel toppings and fillings to suit different applications, such as caramel sauces and bakeable caramel solutions.

Bakels has developed a Neutral Caramel Base for the range, inspired by the concept and success of its Multimix Cake Base, a single ingredient that can be used to produce a multitude of different finished products.

The investment comes as the UK caramel ingredients market is forecast to rise 7% by 2021 and Bakels believes the investment could lead to increased exports to its sister companies and distributors globally.

“We have the philosophy to go where the growth is and the investment illustrates this,” said Paul Morrow, managing director at Bakels. “We operate across all five continents and, with the global caramel ingredients market forecast to be worth £2.1 billion by 2021, we made this investment to create a state-of-the-art caramel production facility to serve the Bakels Group and its customers worldwide.”

The investment brings spending at its site in Bicester, Oxfordshire to more than £21m since Bakels relocated its business there in the mid-1990s.