New from ISA (UK) are the ISA Action and ISA Music impulse/island cabinets for frozen and chilled products. These are the latest additions to the ISA One range.

Belcolade, the real Belgian chocolate supplied by Puratos, now includes natural vanilla in all of its recipes.

Jordans Cereals is expanding its range of cereal bars with the new Nut & Seed Bar. The company says the launch is a result of increased popularity amongst consumers of nuts and seeds.

Country Choice has added several new products to its thaw-and-sell ranges as well as a Bake & Bite branded sandwich wedge pack.

As preferred bakery specialists of Foster products in the UK, Brook Food Processing Equipment (Minehead, Somerset) says it has been impressed with the advance in technology that these have brought to its specialised market within the last few years.

Gadsby’s Bakery in Mill Park, Southwell, is benefiting from the installation of a Humidair Retarder Prover from Double D Food Engineering (Broxburn, West Lothian), which it says has smoothed out “the peaks and troughs” in its production. “The Humidair Retarder Prover has been a tremendous boost for us,” says master baker Terry Gadsby. “By loading the unit the day before and setting the micro-processor controller accurately, we know that we’ll have 15 racks of product ready for firing exactly when we want the next day.”

Eurobake (Bolton, Lancs) has devised a new design of retarder-prover, incorporating an innovative evaporator, which it claims gives greater energy and production efficiency and provides bakers with improved dough conservation control and proving.

Bakers have embraced retarder-provers in recent years as the concept has developed dramatically, both in technology and the consistency of results.

A straight-talking Mancunian has just taken over as national president of the National Association of Master Bakers (NA). You may think there is nothing unusual in that, but Shirley Ryder is not only the youngest person ever to hold the post but she’s also the first woman to be crowned president.

Flicking through some back issues of British Baker recently, I came across a point made by the editor Sylvia Macdonald. She argued in February that the Government pays little heed to comments made by trade associations with memberships of less than three thousand. This made me think – where does that leave the National Association of Master Bakers? I am a serving member of the NA board and, like every member, I have my own personal views, which in no way reflect those of the board.

Excessively high temperatures at its Northwich, Cheshire, bakery led Frank Roberts & Sons to seek an effective cooling system.

For the past 15 years, Ian Martin, site manager of Manchester-based Martins Bakers and Sandwich Makers, has been involved in the artisan bakery scene in Australia, most recently giving specialist help to market leaders in organic sourdough bread, such as Brasserie Bread in Sydney and Dench Bakers in Melbourne. He also managed the bread production at Phillippa’s in Melbourne, well-known as one of the largest commercially successful artisan bakeries in Australia.

The feeling among millers is that this year’s crop is very good but, to mix farming metaphors, you should never count your chickens. Two years ago a month-long August downpour put a dampener on what in June-July was a great crop, leading to low Hagberg, low protein and quality issues. But the weather is just one of a panoply of problems set to affect wheat supply and the price of bakers’ flour.

I have just returned hotfoot from an audience with Tony Blair. As one of around 30 editors across the UK, I was fortunate to be invited to interview the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street.

The situation in the UK’s bakery colleges is a cause for concern to the whole of the industry. If the present trends continue, then the majority of employees in the craft baking industry will have no access to a bakery college. It is precisely because of this situation, which has been worsening for a number of years, that the National Association of Master Bakers (NA) decided to act.

Improved availability, product quality and good customer service have all led to a huge sales increase at Sainsbury’s in-store bakery in Lincoln.

Food and drink manufacturers are being urged to help draft a new industry diploma, as well as share their experiences of training older workers.

Former bakery tutor and past chairman of the British Society of Baking Jean Grieves has called on the industry to re-evaluate its thinking on training, with a view to retaining traditional skills and bringing another generation of bakers to the fore.

Bakels’ Low Gi bread mix helped the firm take the titles of Oxfordshire Business of the Year and Innovation of the Year. The Bicester-based company launched a successful marketing campaign behind the product, which included leafleting 1.3 million consumers through 1,300 independent bakers. Bakels now has plans for a new consumer PR campaign in the autumn.

Biscuit maker United Biscuits has formally put itself up for sale by sending financial packs to potential buyers.

FamilieS of workers threa-tened with redundancy at Liver-pool bakery Sayers marched through the streets in a last-ditch attempt to save their jobs.

Workers at the Hemel Hempstead plant of East Balt Guenther Bakeries are facing redundancy, six months after the Buncefield blast badly damaged the premises and made it inoperable.

Honeytop Speciality Foods is celebrating big sales increases resulting from its new ‘champagne’ naan breads.

An Anglo-Romanian company plans to lead a full-scale assault on the Eastern European country’s bakery market. Bucharest-based Snack Attack will open a 50,000sq ft state-of-the-art sandwich factory there by the end of 2007, which is set to increase production from 10,000 to 100,000 sandwiches a day in the next three years.

A new study confirms that local shops flourish once superstore plans are turned down. The Real Choice report, by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and the Plunkett Foundation, found the number of local and regional food suppliers in and around Saxmundham, East Suffolk, had increased from 300 to 370 with a wider range of local products sold since councillors rejected a supermarket in 1997.

British Baker’s editor Sylvia Macdonald was among a small group of journalists invited to interview Prime Minister Tony Blair earlier this week.

Inter LINK Foods is to close the recently-acquired Hoppers Farmhouse Bakery in a bid to consolidate operations. The 16,000sq ft factory in Herne Bay, Kent, will shut its doors early next year, with the loss of 130 jobs, when production will transfer to Inter Link’s highly automated 70,000sq ft Blackburn bakery.

A record number of golfers played one of the country’s most difficult courses at the British Society of Baking’s (BSB) Golden Jubilee Golf day, last month.

New low-fat and reduced-salt bacon products are being developed by Northampton-based TMI Foods in conjunction with sandwich and food manufacturers in the UK and continental Europe, which the company supplies.

A new web-based system that gives sandwich shop owners a quick and easy solution to selling their products online has received a top award for innovation.

According to market data from consulting and research firm Gira, demand for frozen bread, particularly in the sandwich sector is growing and this trend is confirmed by bakery products supplier Délifrance.

In-store bakery and food to go supplier Cuisine de France has launched new bread carriers, for hot or cold sandwich fillings, include three softbake baguettes in plain, multiseed and onion and nigella flavours. The baguettes are thaw-and-serve and have an extended shelf life.

Walsall resident and native of Bengal Rina Kundu has carried off the latest trophy from Wolverhampton-based Freshway Foods for her Bengal Chicken Do-Piaza Sandwich.

A bid to lose some “bakery baggage” has seen Croydon-based craft baker Coughlans continue to roll out its rebranding as Munch and, in the process, scoop the Baker Sandwich Maker of the Year at the Sammies for the second year running.

Reading Sylvia Macdonald’s Viewpoint in the British Baker ofFeb17th one thing that struck me was the point she made referring to the fact that Governments paid little real heed to comments made by Trade Associations with membership of less than three thousand. This made me think where does that leave the National Association of Master Bakers? And dare I publicly air my views as a serving member of the Board. The answer I gave myself as you will have guessed by now is yes as long as I make it clear they are mine alone and in no way represent the Board.

Artisan bakers in the Irish Republic are getting up a head of steam following an inspirational address in the National Bakery School, Dublin, last year by Robert Ditty, a leader of the artisan baking movement in Northern Ireland.

Don’t despair if England’s football team falters in the World Cup. Its steak and ale pie is likely to prove an easy winner in the Pie World Cup, which pits 32 ‘national’ pies produced by the Square Pie company against each other.

Chris Beaney, owner of Beaney’s bakery based in Strood, Kent, is evangelical about offering work experience. He liaises closely with local schools to open his business to about three pupils a year for one and two-week placements. This has proved so successful that he has gone on to give about six of them jobs in both full-time and part-time roles.

It is just so ironic. Craft bakers tell me every day that they cannot recruit enough good staff or enthusiastic youngsters willing to learn the professions of bakery and confectionery. Supermarket in-stores too are facing a dearth of recruits.

A noise study carried out on the shop floor of Brace’s two bakeries confirmed that workers should wear ear defenders, which have been distributed to all operatives. Visitors will be given disposable earplugs when entering the shop floor areas.

Bollin Dale Engineering is supplying a complete line for production of Jaffa Cake style biscuits to a customer in Iran.

Last week’s annual Bakers Food & Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) conference gave its full backing to the union’s efforts to counter the erosion of final pension schemes that is prevalent across many industry sectors. It also opposed government moves to raise the retirement age.

TALGARTH BAKERY has switched from block fondant to British Sugar’s Celebration Icing Sugar for fondant icing.

Egg production in the UK has been confirmed as among the safest in the world, according to an EU survey.

CHESHIRE-BASED craft chain Arthur Chatwin is capitalising on the football World Cup tournament with dedicated window displays and sales of specially decorated bakery products across its stores.

Maple LEAF BAKERY has unveiled a new £12m bagel line for the New York Bagel Company at its Rotherham site.

The wheat industry in the US is said to be in crisis as many farmers are no longer planting the crop because it is unprofitable, according to Reuters European Business Wire.

The current good weather in wheat growing areas of the UK does not necessarily bode well for this year’s harvest, warns Ian Pinner, managing director of ADM Milling.

Bakeries are counting the cost of rising rapeseed oil prices as the oil is increasingly used as a biodiesel fuel.

BAKERY colleges nationwide are struggling to obtain funding and senior tutors are being put under threat of redundancy and early retirement. Jane Hatton, co-ordinator for bakery and sugar courses at Brooklands, who is widely known throughout the industry and acts as a national examiner for external students, has been given notice of ‘high risk redundancy’ by the Surrey-based college.

Developed by London-based wholesale bakery Bagatelle, Mariner’s Bread contains 0.4g of salt per 100g and is based on the traditional ‘pain brie’ from Normandy. This was enjoyed by cod fisherman in the Normandy port of Honfleur, from the 16th century onwards, during their expeditions to Newfoundland. With a tight white crumb, golden crust and long shelf life, the bread was traditionally made with a ‘brie’ – a large stone on which the dough was crushed, with a long wooden lever to extract the air.

With over 50 years’ experience in the baking and confectionery industries, Perrett and Kane Machine Services (Backwell, Bristol) has supplied the majority of celebration cake manufacturers with its machinery designs, including sheeters, horizontal cutters and shape stamping machines.

With over 50 years’ experience in the baking and confectionery industries, Perrett and Kane Machine Services (Backwell, Bristol) has supplied the majority of celebration cake manufacturers with its machinery designs, including sheeters, horizontal cutters and shape stamping machines.

Dawn Foods (Evesham, Worcs) has produced a range of part-finished sheet cakes that can be thawed, finished and partitioned, allowing bakers to make their own mark on the finished product. The new sheet cakes are available in two flavours – carrot cake and chocolate brownie – and can be used as celebration cakes as well as cake portions.

Icecraft is the latest product to join British Sugar’s (Peterborough, Cambs) stable of ingredients for the UK food and drink industries. The icing sugar is designed specifically for making smoother whiter sugarpaste for cake decoration.

Essex-based firm Bekaert & Dupont (West Thurrock) says it always has to find innovative ways to decorate cakes. Demand for something unique to complement the finished product is ever-growing, says the firm.

Designing a personalised celebration cake has now been made easier for consumers with the introduction of Kluman & Balter’s (Waltham Cross) next generation of in-store high-tech systems. The new photo-decoration system allows consumers to input their choices at a free-standing compact console, via an interactive touch-screen display. They are guided through a series of steps to create the final design, which is printed on edible sugar paper at the bakery counter.

With the celebration cake market growing consistently over the last few years, ingredients supplier Bakels (Bicester, Oxfordshire) is offering a range of ingredients to produce celebration cakes for any occasion.

With rising popularity of licensed celebration cakes, supplier Bakemark UK (Wirral, Cheshire) is capitalising on the uptake of its cake mixes, which it claims provide ease of use and added functionality, such as shelf-life extension.

Demand for celebration cakes in the UK market remains buoyant, according to a number of suppliers working in the sector. Moreover, the market is widely touted as not having yet reached its full potential, and opportunities to target different demographic profiles as well improve management of the category could see the market continue to effervesce for some time.

Once again, I have had a brilliant idea, which will make all our fortunes! It came to me when I bought a new telephone with two handsets. All the parts were loose in the box and you had to put them together. This reminded me of cheap furniture – and some not so cheap – which comes in a box and for which you have to turn your home into a furniture factory or electronic assembly plant before it will work.

Bakery retailer Greggs has selected touchscreen computer specialist firm J2 Retail Systems to supply EPOS hardware into its Greggs and Bakers Oven stores. The contract – the result of a period of negotiation between J2 and Greggs to produce an embedded system – will initially see the installation of J2 550 integrated touchscreen terminals into 300 stores. On completion of this roll-out, J2 will be the primary hardware provider in the gradual replacement of the whole Greggs estate, which covers over 1,100 Greggs and over 200 Bakers Oven shops.

Melton Mowbray – the battleground for the ongoing spat between industry giants Northern Foods and a handful of Melton Mowbray pork pie producers over the pie’s protected status – is a small town where pork pies and tourism are big businesses. In the Melton Mowbray area alone, tourism employs over 1,100 people and is worth over £55 million. It’s little surprise the local pie makers are so keen to protect their slice of the takings.

Here’s a question which keeps coming up. Our simple, yet perceptive, country baker Tony Phillips raises it in his column. Are craft bakers too focused on baking, at the expense of sales?

Sainsbury’s has revealed that its top-selling loaf is Kingsmill Square White Medium 800g, followed by Hovis Square Cut White 800g.

A RELAXATION of cross-border laws, aimed at creating a free market for the services sector, should not result in an influx of European bakers setting up shop in the UK, experts suggest.

Irish group Greencore is now down to 4,300 suppliers from 6,000 18 months ago, with the likelihood of a further reduction under its Total Lowest Cost cost-cutting programme. The group said the programme was contributing to a 2% per year cut in operating costs in its convenience foods division, whose bakery products include cakes, desserts, quiches, Yorkshire puddings and sandwiches. There was a 50% or E2.5m increase year-on-year in energy costs in the division in the six months to the end of March, corresponding to 0.5% of sales.

Retail sales of sweet bakery products, such as doughnuts and muffins, rose by 4.8% in 2005 to £1.3bn, in part thanks to coffee shops giving consumers a taste for premium products, according to research by TNS for Rich Products.

Allied Bakeries, part of Associated British Foods, is aiming to grab a piece of the chilled garlic bread market with the launch of Kingsmill-branded ‘heat and share’ ciabatta and flatbread products, made by fellow Allied com-pany Speedibake.

A new guide from CCFRA, Crisis prevention through incident management: being prepared and responding effec-tively, aims to help food and drink firms prevent incidents, such as accidental contamination, from becoming crises that could damage or destroy their business. Tel: 01386 842225 or email: pubs@campden.co.uk.

Medway Foods is pushing its quality credentials after its management buyout of three Canterbury Foods pastry and ingredients’ plants in January.

Hurry you have until June 30 to enter the Baking Industry Awards, after calls for more time from our readers.

French milling company Moul-bie has started rolling out its “Ronde des Pains” artisan bakery concept in Europe, following success in the UK.

Fast FOOD chain McDonald’s said it has no intention of ditching its recently-introduced Toasted Deli Sandwiches, despite disappointing sales and a planned replacement of some of the range this summer.

Tesco has been ordered to pay more than £31,000 after a customer discovered a chunk of insulation foam inside a 400g white in-store bakery baguette. Sam Avery bought the sandwich at a Tesco Metro store in Norwich in 2004. Tesco pleaded guilty at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on Monday to selling food which was not of the substance or quality demanded by the purchaser.

Chilled speciality breadmaker New Primebake is on a recruitment drive following its acquisition by Icelandic food giant Bakkavör Group.

Supermarket Tesco has revealed it will have completed a roll-out of standard-sized bread baskets to all its plant bread fixtures by the end of its financial year.

The Peebles Hydro Hotel was the setting for the Scottish Association of Master Bakers’ (SAMB) ‘James Scott’ technical sessions, held on 29 May. Presentations ranged from the art of pulled sugar modelling to staff recruitment and new bakery investment.

Bowmans Milling (Hitchin, Herts), with a group turnover in excess of £40m, delivers flour throughout the UK and Europe.

AB Mauri subsidiary Cereform (Northampton) says its knowledge of functional ingredients, bakery plants and processing technology allows it to work with a wide variety of flours and adapt to changing bakery industry demands.

ADM Milling (Brentwood, Essex) has wheat flour mills located around the UK and a technical centre in Avonmouth, Bristol. From these mills, the company supplies all the bakery and food manufacturing sectors, from multinational manufacturers to in-store bakeries, caterers and craft bakers.

The last 12 months have seen big changes in milling and baking. Five flour mills (all on the eastern side of the country) have closed, and one has changed hands. The number of UK mills has now fallen below 60, a record low, as millers look for increased efficiency in production and delivery to meet customer demands. The break-up of the Finedon/Rathbones business has been completed, which has changed the map of baking. Most recently, Northern Foods has announced that much of its bakery and milling business is for sale. So it looks as if structural change is likely to continue apace in 2006/7.

Employment law is predominantly concerned with protecting the rights of wor-kers but it also recognises that businesses require flexibility from their employees. When it comes to changing terms and conditions of employment – and where there is a pressing need for business change – the law will not simply allow the employee to stay on their existing contractual terms forever. The need to allow changes to be made while protecting an employee’s contractual rights is seen as a “balancing act” by the courts. How this process works in action has been helpfully re-stated in the recent case of Scott & Co v Andrew Richardson.

THE WINNERS OF THE SAMMIES 2006

For many baking companies over the years, the decision to move to new premises has been motivated primarily by a need for more space. Their old bakery was not designed to cope with growing levels of production and had become cramped, so the familiar argument runs.

Name: BOB BUCK Company: FWP MATTHEWS Job title: TECHNICAL SALES MANAGER Location: BEDFORD

Sweet-toothed attendees at this year’s Baking Industry Awards will be delighted to know that Puratos is sponsoring a Chocolate Fountain the awards, with unlimited dips to tantalise the taste buds.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Allied Baking and Milling Group’s new CEO, the cheery antipodean Brian Robinson, at Allied’s headquarters in Maidenhead. Robinson arrived in the UK last November and was then struck down by a mystery bout of pneumonia – perhaps an extreme reaction to the change in climate. Thankfully, he is almost fully recovered and remains delighted to be in the UK, particularly, I am sure, now summer has finally arrived.

WELSH plant baker Brace’s is inviting charities and community groups in the Neath Port Talbot area to apply for grants of up to £50a0 as part of its Bread for the Community initiative. “We are commited to helping local communities,” said a Brace’s spokesperson.

Pastry chefs from three top London hotels will be battling it out as finalists in the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Pastry Chef Award.

Premium desserts business Just Puds is to be listed by an Irish distributor following a recent listing with London-based chilled foods wholesaler Bespoke Foods, which supplies 600 independent retail outlets.

Staff at handmade Cornish pasty manufacturer Proper Cornish are to get tailor-made training in a bid to improve productivity.

Fresh bread sales in the US are on the rise, indicating that the Atkins diet is further loosening its grip on dieters.

The leading 20 companies in the UK baking industry are strenghtening their grip on the market, according to a new survey from Plimsoll Publishing.

Small “wholesome” cakes business Bar Cake has bought space for future expansion at its Kingswood, Bristol, bakery and is looking for more distributors for its frozen products. Co-founder Georgina Doyle said that, although Bar Cake still has excess capacity, it has acquired the building next to its present bakery and is going to knock them through.

Organic food company Duchy Originals is to open its first bakery on 14 June producing new ranges including organic Cornish pasties and sweet and savoury tarts and flans (British Baker, 28 Oct. pg 6).

Independent flour miller FWP Matthews is to build a £1m warehouse at its Cotswold base in Shipton under Wychwood. Work will start on the 675sq m building in late summer and will be finished by the end of the year. It will house a new automated palletiser to speed up logistics while four lorry loading bays will mean loading can be done under cover for the first time.

William Reed Publishing has announced that Bake & Take magazine has moved to the company as a sister title to British Baker. The consolidation will see monthly title Bake & Take continue to be published alongside the sector’s flagship brand British Baker. The International Milling Directory, The Food Ingredients Directory, two regional bakery shows, plus Food Ingredients and Analysis, and Ingredients Health and Nutrition bi-monthly magazines have also moved over from Bake & Take publisher Pearl Media.

A BOLTON baker has retired after 50 years in the trade. Peter Holmes, 65, was given a special send off by staff and managers at Hampsons Bakery.

Northern FOODS has confirmed the loss of more than 400 of the 1,900 jobs at its Park Cakes factory in Oldham as part of an efficiency drive. The business has also been put up for sale along with 16 other Northern operations, including several bakery businesses, as part of a move to slim down the group to concentrate on the pizza, biscuit, ready meal, sandwich and Christmas pudding markets.

Allied Bakeries has started a major operational review of its business, and is to relaunch its three major brands over the next year. Speaking exclusively to British Baker, new baking and milling group CEO Brian Robinson said Allied Bakeries was “a business that needs a lot of attention” and that he was working on “getting the fundamentals right”.

Foster Refrigerator (Kings Lynn, Norfolk) says bakery cabinet retarders are now available as part of its Gastro Pro range.

Auto-Bake (Birmingham) says it has fused modern continuous baking technology with the traditional stone hearth.

Next Controls (Farnborough, Hamps) has introduced a new version of its Tutela automated temperature monitoring system. The new Tutela4food system provides automatic monitoring of refrigeration equipment in food outlets.

Ingredients company Macphie, (Glenbervie, Scotland) has added a limited-edition raspberry flavour to its range of indulgent Sensations cake mixes.

New Petit Forestier customer, Gloucester-based Mantinga, specialises in the supply of a full range of speciality breads and pastries. Many of the company’s products have a distinctly European flavour – such as its Baltic loaves, baguettes and rolls with pumpkin seeds or sesame seeds.

Bott’s (Ashby, Leics) modular in-vehicle storage and workshop solutions enables users to transform their commercial vehicles into safe working environments to support service, engineering, maintenance and delivery applications, says the company.

Since its introduction in 2002, the Citroen Dispatch-based Jiffy Salsa has been one of the best-sellers in the Jiffy Trucks (Shipley, West Yorkshire) range.

Frozen baked products company Vandemoortele has appointed Christian Salvesen to handle its frozen distribution in the UK.