Q. What does the British Society of Baking’s annual golf day on Thursday, May 18, 2006 have in common with the British Masters Golf Championship?

Hubbard Transport Refrigeration’s (Ipswich, Suffolk) new 520 Alpha direct-drive refrigeration system is designed for vehicles up to 10 tonnes and is suitable for both single- and multi-temperature delivery vehicles.

Nisbets (Avonmouth, Bristol) has added two full height display chillers with self-closing lockable doors to its Polar refrigeration range.

Foster Refrigeration (King’s Lynn, Norfolk) says it is helping bakers meet the increasing demands for energy efficiency with its new Green Paper, Energy efficiency – saving energy in the kitchen.

Coldroom modules from Container Kitchen Systems (CKS) (Guildford, Surrey) mean bakers can have access to extra cold storage for fixed periods.

The Gem display cabinet from Williams Refrigeration (King’s Lynn, Norfolk) is designed to store chilled products, such as sandwiches, salads, fruit and drinks. The company says it is easy to clean, energy saving, reliable and safe.

Catering equipment company E & R Moffat (Bonnybridge, Scotland) has launched a due diligence data logging system for its range of foodservice trolleys and counters.

Interbake (Bury, Lancashire) has introduced the Cream King Eco 3.0 whipping machine. Made by German firm Hagesana, the machine enables users to hygienically whip and aerate fresh or synthetic cream, while a built-in cooling system keeps cream chilled in warm bakery environments, ensuring stability and freshness.

Caravell’s (Buckingham) retarder-prover can slow down and hold the development of dough for up to three days. It then warms the dough to the correct prove temperature to ensure it is ready for the oven at the right time.

Brook Food Processing (Minehead, Somerset) has launched the Polin Frigocella Avant retarder prover.

Apuro’s (Solihull, West Midlands) gastronorm compatible matching refrigerator and freezer cabinets are marketed under the Atlanta brand. They come in single- and double-door versions.

With gas and electricity prices soaring by 40% in 2005 and potentially more increases on the way, the need to be energy-efficient has never been greater.

Most employers are keenly aware of their obligations to consult with workforce representatives in the context of “mass” redundancies. In broad terms, these apply to the redundancies of 20 or more employees at one site within a period of 90 days. Employers will usually have in mind the statutory minimum periods for such consultation: 30 days where fewer than 100 employees are affected or 90 days otherwise.

Plant bakeries that have on-site silo storage for flour and sugar are facing a looming deadline to comply with ATEX (ATmospheres EXplosives) legislation, designed to heighten safety in the workplace.

Taking snuff out of a ram’s horn was a privilege that Andrew Fairley, British Baker’s Student Baker of Year, politely declined. He also hopes he will never need to invoke the right to a private cell in one of Glasgow’s police stations or indeed fight alongside Glaswegians as they defend their city.

A move from its long-established town centre home to a substantially larger bakery on the outskirts of Falkirk has provided retail and wholesale baker Mathiesons not only with “a totally compliant food manufacturing environment” but also with a completely new perspective on the marketplace.

A concept, a product range and a business were the subjects of the three marketing campaigns in the final of last year’s Baking Industry Awards. That illustrates the scope of this award. The judges will not just be looking for big-spenders, they’ll be looking for bakers with talent and creative ideas that they’ve put to good use to promote their businesses. They will be looking to reward initiatives that have led to a growth in sales.

I am always bemused by the fact that being seen as 'old fashioned' is something of a slur, whilst using the word 'traditional' is often a big plus. In that case, I wish we would return to 'traditional' discipline and 'tradtitional' mealtimes at least once a day. My Reverend godfather used to say that most education takes place around the dinner table. He said it was when you passed on your values to your children.

The Lake District's Hazelmere Cafe & Bakery has been named the best place in Britain to get a cup of tea by the UK Tea Council. Judges visited 100 venues and rated them on 17 criteria from decor to crockery. The cafe uses only loose-leaf tea and bakes it's own food using ingredients sourced locally. Awards for excellence were given to 38 other tea rooms in the Top Afternoon Tea Awards 2006, including six Bettys of Harrogate teashops in Yorkshire

The Metropolitan Police is continuing to investigate incidents of deliberate contamination of Allied Bakeries’ Kingsmill bread, produced at its Orpington plant in Kent.

The value of bread exports dropped 6% in 2005, compared to a rise in overall food and drink exports of 3% in 2005, latest figures suggest.

Read Sam’s story to see how your support can make a difference:

This year’s British Sandwich Awards, organised by The British Sandwich Association, will be made on May 18.

Retail trade union Usdaw is to launch a Save Our Sundays campaign at its annual conference in Blackpool this weekend.

Northern Foods has dismissed press reports it is planning to sell its £300 million turnover bakery division as “pure speculation”. A report in the Sunday Times on April 23 said Northern Foods’ board would discuss a potential sale of the division at a meeting this week.

Asda is piloting a partnership scheme between its in-store bakeries, a group of North Yorkshire farmers and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Around 140 attendees are expected at the 76th National Federation of Bakery Students Societies and the Institute of Bread Bakers Alliance annual conference in Southport this Bank Holiday weekend.

Chatwins’ joint MD Trevor Mooney completed the 26.2 mile London Marathon in five hours, 18 minutes last weekend.

Bakery equipment supplier APV Baker has been acquired by private investors John Cowx and Brian Taylor, from owners Invensys. The process technology company will now trade as Baker Perkins, a name it was known by between 1920 and 1987.

RHM said its Bread Bakeries division had seen outstan-ding achievement by Hovis and an improved performance on cakes in the year to April 29, 2006.

A PROSECUTION against two directors of Finedon Mill, rela-ting to breaches of the 1965 Cereals Marketing Act, has been dismissed due to legal technicalities.

Yorkshire start-up company Wensleydale Foods has had to rename a pies range due to a trademark dispute with Bettys of Harrogate.

A baker was assaulted in an armed robbery at Norwich retail bakery Mr Bunn the Baker last Friday (April 21). The victim, Royston Owen, was inside the store at about 3am when two men entered. They are believed to have been carrying a shotgun and axe.

Bells of Lazonby has won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise – Innovation Award 2006 – for allergy-friendly bakery pro-ducts under its Ok Foods and Village Bakery brands.

Supermarket Tesco is to revamp its bakery departments across the whole of the UK in July, with new signage, range and layout. The changes will allow the supermarket to reorganise its offer, senior bakery buyer Andy Brocklehurst told British Baker.

Finnish packaging board producer Stora Enso is producing airtight paperboard cups for European food brand owners. The new cups are used for packing dry foods, including snacks, cereals and confectionery.

AB Brasil, Latin America’s lea-ding producer of fresh yeast and part of Associated British Foods, now wraps all its Fleischmann yeast in Cellophane 360MSB from Innovia Films and has cut water loss by nearly 50% as a result. The company also says that product quality and shelf life have been improved.

Two important trends in bakery packaging are being driven by consumer demand, says Robert Tindal, marketing director at Manchester-based Reynards. “The most common enquiries at last month’s Food & Bake were for environmentally-friendly (EF) packs and those which promote the baker’s own brand image,” he says.

Tri-Star (Enfield, Middlesex), is claiming to supply the world’s first ever clear biodegradable sandwich wedge. Available nationally, the product is both biodegradable and biocompostable.

Advanced Dynamics (Brad-ford, West Yorks), has recently introduced into the UK bakery sector a label applicator, said to be ideal for flow-wrapped and vacuum-packed bakery items. The Eurokett VEGA is equipped with stepper motor drive to provide a high level of control during the labelling process. It gives a +/-0.8mm position accuracy and has integrated programmable controls built into the system’s back plate.

Preferred Packaging Europe (Daventry, Northamptonshire) is kicking off the forthcoming World Cup tournament early with sporty football sealing films for its sandwich wedge range. These are intended to be eye-catching and provide on-shelf impact, while increasing sandwich sales this summer.

Warburtons is using a Markem SmartLase 100i laser coder to apply variable date codes to its boxes of All in One Riddlers pre-filled bread rolls. The company chose the coder to print ‘best before’ and ‘display until’ dates, as well as traceability codes on to the cardboard packaging, when it saw the print quality and efficient performance on high-speed applications, it says.

Anthony Alan Foods (Barnsley, South Yorkshire), manufacturer of Weight Watchers-branded cakes, is producing the goods in a variety of shelf-ready packaging, including individual, twin and triple sizes. The packaging is designed to improve handling, increase product profile and enhance sales.

Supermarkets are increasingly issuing challenges to food manufacturers to improve the accuracy of the date coding and labelling of their products. The baking industry is no exception and bread manufacturers are being asked to apply vital data, such as batch codes and date codes, directly on to the bread bags, to ensure effective traceability throughout the product’s life cycle.

Nowadays, packaging is not what it’s cut out to be – it’s a whole lot more! After the packaging has been cut, shaped and formed, the leftovers can be recycled or used to make everything from microchip carriers to currency containers, paper bags to poop scoops.

Many of the stupid announcements by politicians must irritate you as much as they do me. That arch feminist – she from planet Pluto not Venus – Ms Patricia Hewitt, the then Minister for Trade and Industry who, to the best of my knowledge, has never started, run a business or even worked for a commercial company in her life – which is of course the perfect qualification to tell us how to run our companies – came out with such nonsense in a consultation paper that I can only conclude she had spent the previous 24 hours in a pub trying to prove it is good for you to drink for that period.

After a fire destroyed its Inchinnan-based premises in Renfrewshire in September last year, Scottish retail and wholesale bakery Aulds faced a major challenge.

City of London Livery Company, the Worshipful Company of Bakers, whose first record dates back to 1155, marked another historic occasion on April 3, 2006.

Following its purchase of David Powell Bakeries last year, Rich UK has been busy integrating the business. George Thomopoulous explains the firm’s strategy and ambitions to Anne Bruce

The build-up to the 19th annual Baking Industry Awards continues with a look at the Bakery Supplier of the Year category.

I will never forget coming into work on the morning of September 16 and hearing about the massive fire at Aulds bakery in Inchinnan.

SAINSBURY’S is integrating all its supermarket counter and self-service retail scales and bakery printers into a centralised system, said to be the world’s first. It will cover its main 450 stores.The project is being carried out in partnership with Avery Weigh-Tronix, and a roll-out programme for the system is nearing completion.

Police are hunting for a wholesale baker’s van, which went missing twice in a week.

Glasgow wholesale bakery D McGhee & Sons has revealed it plans to double turnover and boost its market share this year.

Lathams craft bakery in Southport, Lancashire, has been involved in National Doughnut Week, which this year runs from May 6 to 13, since the outset.

An audience of 75 members from the British branch of the Richemont Club witnessed a recent demonstration of Italian baking by international president Piergiorgio Giorilli.

Associated British Foods said performance of its Allied Bakeries division was unsatisfactory as it posted its interim results this week.

Lyndale Foods has started a consultation with staff over 180 proposed job losses at its Sayers bakery in Liverpool, following the loss of a Kwik Save contract.

Northern Irish baker Irwin’s has been awarded funding from the Irish Central Border Area Network (ICBAN) to develop its range of “smart breads”.

Birmingham bakery chain M Firkin has been rescued from administration by baker Ian Bolderston, in a deal supported by flour miller Heygates and completed on April 12. The sale of Firkins’ 54 shops across the West Midlands and its West Bromwich bakery secures over 300 jobs, and comes after Firkins called in administrators BDO Stoy Hayward in January.

Retail baker Oliver Adams pressed two vintage buses into service in Northampton town centre this month, as it celebrated its 150th anniversary and launched new branding. Two vintage buses from 1947 and 1964, with Adams bread advertisements from the 1950s on the side, were used to give the public free rides to mark the occasion.

Dublin’s McCambridge Group has tabled a formal offer for rival company Cooke’s Bakery, currently in examinership, the Irish equivalent of receivership.

Welsh bakery Brace’s is planning to open a facility outside Wales as it builds its business in the south of England.

Nash Nutritionals (Dorking, Surrey) has introduced OatVantage. This natural oat soluble fibre is concentrated to contain 54% oat beta-glucan, which enables bakers to achieve a beta-glucan content of 0.75g per serving.

Bakehouse (Bagshot, Surrey) has launched mini versions of its All-Butter, Chocolate and Almond Croissants. Ideal for sharing and multipacks, the Mini Croissants are made near Lille, France.

The dried vine fruit market in the UK, the largest market in the world for this category, yielded a 5% rise in imports for the first eight months of 2005 compared with 2004, says California Raisins (London).

Fuerst Day Lawson (FDL) (London) says companies can capitalise on consumer and media interest in the glycaemic index (GI) diet by adding seeds to their products.

Renshaw’s (Liverpool) Double Cut Peel and Renpeel have a concentrated flavour and citrus aroma, says the company.

Health has overtaken convenience when it comes to retailers making claims about food. So says a new report citing ‘natural’ inclusions as a key driver in the rush to cash in on diet and well-being trends.

As you drive along the Aegean coast of Turkey at harvest time, you see field upon field covered in white sheeting, with anything from tomatoes to grapes laid out to dry in the blazing sun. But you will not spot any dried fruit from one particular supplier to the UK baking industry from the car.

Shoppers purchasing items worth less than £10 may soon be able to pay by simply tapping their debit card on a terminal before walking away.

This week our focus is on the In-Store Bakery Award, sponsored by Macphie of Glenbervie. In-store bakeries are an important part of any superstore, with the smell of the freshly-baked bread wafting through the aisles and tempting customers to buy. But to be a successful manager of an in-store bakery, you have got to keep coming up with fresh ideas or your products and your concept will quickly go stale.

Get ready to tap! No, I am not talking about a dance revival but this concerted effort to stop us using money and keep us using cards, thereby making the banks very rich indeed. On the one hand, using cards apparently makes us all spend more, but on the other, it also pushes up fraud levels considerably, which we – not the banks – all pay for.

CSM plans to close down its production facility in Illinois by the second quarter of 2007 as part of an optimisation process of the supply chain at CSM Bakery Supplies North America. The production facility employs 146 staff, making frozen dough, fillings and icings under the Karp’s brand.

YOUR readers should share the wonderful tribute to Jean Grieves, who was invested as a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Bakers on April 4. This is the culmination of an outstanding career in our industry.

Get making those doughnuts – it’s National Doughnut Week on May 6-13 and you still have time to register. While raising money for The Children’s Trust, you will also reap the business rewards of getting involved. Once people are inside your shop, the opportunities for cross-selling products and impulse buying are clear.

Bakers and millers have been warned to expect a rise in wheat prices of around £20 a tonne by 2010, due to rising demand for biofuels made from wheat. The UK government has ruled that 5% of road transport fuel should be from renewable sources by 2010, and the EU has a target of 6% by 2010. National Association of British and Irish Millers (NABIM) director general Alex Waugh told British Baker these targets equate to around 20 million tonnes of renewable fuel being used across Europe in 2010. Renewable sources for fuel include bioethanol, made from wheat and bio-diesel, made from oilseed rape. Much of this is likely to be imported into the UK, Mr Waugh said. However, as an illustration, if the UK was to rely solely on its own wheat to make its 5% renewable fuel, half the annual crop – or seven million tonnes would be required.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is seeking responses from all retailers – including bakery retailers – to help gather data for its 13th annual Retail Crime Survey. The BRC hopes to gain a wider understanding on how crime affects the whole industry. The results will be published in October.

The National Association of Master Bakers will install its first lady president at its 119th Annual Conference in Stratford-upon-Avon from April 28 to May 1.

Maltster Muntons has secured £25,000-worth of fun-ding through the Home Grown Cereals Authority’s Enterprise Awards to enable it to export malted wholegrain flakes to the US market.

Catering giant Compass plans to complete the sale of brands, including Upper Crust, Millie’s Cookies and Caffè Ritazza, to new owner EQT Partners after announcing the deal this week.

TAUNTON desserts company Maynard Scotts has changed its name to Ministry of Cake following a management buy-out last year. Managing director Chris Ormrod takes the title Prime Minister, with a Cabinet, including Ministers for Finance, Transport and Creativity.

Scottish wholesale and retail baker Murdoch Allan says it is seeing massive sales growth after signing a supply deal with supermarket Asda in January 2005.

Craft baker Greenhalgh’s is to start rolling out “fantastic new branding” to give its 42 outlets a “fresher look” from next month. Bakery production manager David Smart said the new fascia is designed to give the stores a more modern feel. The “G” of Greenhalgh’s has been blown up to four times the size of standard text, to give the company a clear identifying logo. The new look will take 18 months to roll out across the company’s estate in north-west England, Mr Smart told British Baker.

Allied Bakeries has been forced to withdraw a television advertisement for Kingsmill Wholegrain & White bread, after being rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority.

Warburtons has become the latest plant baker to increase prices on its bread, with Wales’ Brace’s Bakery saying it plans to follow suit. Warburtons blamed rising energy prices and other overheads for an increase across its range, including around 5p to 6p on an 800g loaf. For example, its 800g wholemeal medium sliced bread is now 97p in all the major multiples, up from 91p on February 22. Its white sliced bread is up from 92p to 97p and its 400g sliced milk roll is up from 61p to 67p, as of April 5.

Parents have a good understanding of what constitutes healthy eating, but this is not being translated into the necessary improvements in their children’s diet.

The Weight Watchers range of muffins, produced under license by from Anthony Alan Foods, (Barnsley, Yorkshire) is good news not only for those looking to lose weight, but all cake-lovers.

When people think of American baked products, they usually think of doughnuts. American style products, however, can include a whole range of cakes and sponges.

Managing director David Sanger of Rollover (Slough, Bucks) comments: “Hot dogs were reputedly invented in Germany but they have become an American institution and are an essential part of any US-themed event or promotion.

Rich Products (Kidderminster, Worcs) has launched a quality cup cake range under its David Powell brand.

According to Alison Daniels, Macphie’s (Glenbervie, Scotland) category marketing manager, US-style products have a huge influence on UK buying behaviour.

What is the secret of making successful double chocolate-chip muffins? Bakery specialist Kluman & Balter (Waltham Cross, Herts) says it has the answer – good quality American-style ingredients and a foolproof recipe.

Dawn Foods (Evesham, Worcs) has developed a number of low-fat and lower-sodium products that enable bakers to cater for the more health conscious consumer, the company says.

BakeMark UK (Wirral, Merseyside) says sales of ring donuts are up 49% this year. The company supplies a number of products to help bakers capitalise on the trend. It most recently launched two licensed donut varieties – Nestlé Rolo and Toffee Crisp – which are supplied with free branded ‘tent cards’ in every case for added visual appeal.

Bakels (Bicester, Oxon) offers mixes for producing US-style muffins quickly and easily. The company’s Cake Muffin Concentrate and Chocolate Muffin Concentrate are described as economical mixes requiring the addition of flour, sugar, water, oil and egg to make muffins with good volume, flavour and shelf-life. Both are available in 12.5kg bags.

The sweet bakery industry in the US, as in the UK, is embroiled in the obesity debate and has had to develop healthier alternatives. One of the biggest health issues to arise in the US is trans-fats labelling regulation, which came into effect in January 2006. This requires US manufacturers to list trans fats separately on the Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP). The Food and Drug Administration’s ruling on trans fats is the first significant change to the NFP since the Nutritional, Labelling and Education Act (NLEA) regulations were finalised in 1993.

What to buy Barbara, my wife, for her birthday is my latest dilemma. Like many men who indulge their wives outrageously, I could not think what to buy her – she already has me! But I suddenly had a brainwave. I would buy her an honour.

Tiny blurred images, gaudy colours, fussy layouts with ugly fonts – a quick trawl of online bakery retailers yields a pretty sad collective. ‘It is the quality of product that is important,’ a baker might say. But the maxim ‘never judge a book by its cover’ does not apply when it comes to the web.

Tony Reed, until very recently, pulled the strings of a gargantuan bakery operation worth £1bn – amounting to almost a third of the value of the entire baking industry. So when he repeatedly spun his catchphrase “follow the money” to bakery suppliers at last month’s British Society of Baking Spring Conference in Birmingham, you could sense the assembled MDs and CEOs scribbling mental notes.

Gordon Brown’s 10th and possibly final Budget contained some nasty surprises together with some sweeteners for businesses of all sizes.

Gordon Brown’s 10th and possibly final Budget contained some nasty surprises together with some sweeteners for businesses of all sizes.

Is the plant baking industry getting more profitable? That is the question raised by the new 2006 Key Note report into bread and Bakery Products.

I was amazed to read the start of the piece by David Powell on fruit bagel bars in the British Baker Recipes Supplement of February 24. He asks: “Who says bagels have to be round?” The answer is anyone who eats bagels. You may choose to call something a “fruit bagel bar”, but if it’s not round, if it doesn’t have a hole, if it’s not dense and chewy it certainly isn’t anything I, and millions of others, would recognise as a bagel.

INGREDIENTS supplier Bakels has expanded its pro-duct development department, led by new head of product development Gary Gibbs.

United Central Bakeries (UCB) has underlined its commitment to the gluten-free market with the opening of a dedicated production area at its Bathgate headquarters, writes Ian Martin.

Making James’s Life Worth Living

Cornish pasty franchise Oggy Oggy, owned by New-quay-based Crantock Bakery, is planning to establish another 15 to 20 shops this year.

Craft bakers are looking at ways to cut overheads after the Low Pay Commission confirmed the minimum wage will rise again in October.

the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) minister Lord Bach will be keynote speaker at the Federation of Bakers’ fifth Annual Conference, on May 10.

Consolidation and rationalisation in the bakery manufacturing industry is particularly hitting smaller enterprises, a new Key Note report indicates.

Dublin-based McCam-bridge Group has acquired Oxford-based cakes supplier Queen of Hearts as it expands its UK operations.

Easter is only a week away, so get ready to enter our Easter display competition. To take part you will need to send us a colour photograph of your Easter-themed window display, especially if it wows your neighbourhood. Next week’s issue will contain full competition details and rules, but you can prepare by taking your photo early. Watch this space.

Two Baking Industry Awards 2005 winners and one finalist have been made members of the Incorporation of Bakers of Glasgow, in recognition of their achievement at the awards, organised by British Baker.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is preparing for a 12-week consultation on fortification of bread with folic acid.

The plant baking industry is in improved financial health, despite negative indications in a new Key Note market report on bread and bakery products.