SoHo expands offer
The SoHo Sandwich Company is branching out with a range of new products, which include a spinach and goats cheese tart with caramelised onions, brownies and a chocolate tart. The business supplies gourmet sandwiches, salads and sushi to private and corporate functions, as well as the wholesale and retail markets. It will also offer sausage rolls and pastries soon.

Giant cupcake
Manchester-based Martin’s Bakery produced a giant cupcake for display at Salfords’ Food and Drink Festival Fayre on Saturday 3 October. The magenta creation, made to match the official colour of Visit Salford, followed on from Martin’s world record-breaking Eccles cake at last year’s event.

Cargill milestone
Cargill is celebrating after processing one million tonnes of wheat at its Manchester plant, according to farminguk.com. The achievement followed a £75m investment last year to convert the plant from processing imported maize to domestic wheat.

Tax break proposal
Proposals for a National Insurance tax holiday for new start-ups have been announced by Shadow Chancellor George Osborne at this week’s Conservative Party conference in Manchester. He said the tax break on employers’ NI contributions would apply to the first 10 people recruited by a firm.

Company fined
Oxford bakery employee Paula Lleshi had two fingertips cut off as she cleaned a dangerous icing machine in January this year, reported the Oxford Mail. Spread Newco Four, of Blackburn, Lancashire, which ran the bakery at the time, was ordered to pay more than £8,000 in fines and costs.