The NFBSS/IBB Alliance is organising a series of training workshops which are open to any one following a recognised course in bakery, either college or work-place based.

Although my grandfather ran a bakery, the industry didn't appeal to me at first, and I joined the RAF when I left school before taking a job as a security guard at Asda in Dudley. A vacancy came up in the bakery department as a trainee baker and I originally took it because it meant working longer hours.

(Bromley, Kent), a Lakeland Dairies company, makes cream which can be used on Christmas desserts.

Sil-Pin by Culinare (Farnborough, Hants) has launched a colourful collection of silicone rolling pins and pastry rollers with zinc alloy-coated handles for the traditional baker; a "Soft Grip" design for the baker-in-training; and, for the professional baker, the Baker's design, which has no handles.

For the growing number of people whose bloating and lethargy is affecting their quality of life, Livwell's Christmas offering includes wheat-, gluten- and milk-free Christmas cake with icing and marzipan, a two-pack of Christmas puddings and four mince pies that are also egg-free.

(near Newquay, Cornwall) has rolled out seasonal items, including: a turkey and cranberry pasty, complete with sage and onion stuffing; a hand-raised pork and cranberry pie, made with hot water pastry; and an apple and mincemeat pasty. All three joined Crantock's existing range of 26 pasties, from traditional Cornish to beef madras.

(Evesham, Worcestershire) has developed a seasonal Christmas recipe card, using standard Dawn Foods mixes.

(Southall, Middlesex) has introduced several varieties of filled pastries and pies.

(Stone, Staffordshire) is offering several festive treats. The Shortcrust Pastry Mince Pie is a fully-baked, thaw-and-serve pastry case, filled with mincemeat.

JANUARY

Gordon Ramsay has described Mich Turner as the "Bentley of cake baking" - high praise from the Michelin-starred chef who is notoriously difficult to please.

A degree in biology is probably not the first qualification you look for when recruiting an in-store cake buyer or even the fact that the applicant likes to play rugby.

10.30am

The Office of Fair Trading is considering whether Premier Foods' proposed acquistion of RHM should be referred to the Competition Commission (British Baker, 8 December, pg 4).

Greencore's sandwiches, cakes and quiches businesses have performed particularly well over the last year on the back of new products launches with a premium focus, it said last week.

Eastern Europeans are developing a taste for upmarket coffee judging by the results of British-owned coffee chain Coffeeheaven.

This is our last issue of 2006 and I hope all of you are having a busy and prosperous Christmas period.

Glisten Confectionery has installed a new integrated stock, warehousing and distribution system linking its two factories in Blackburn and Skegness.

Caffè Nero's chairman and CEO Gerry Ford has made a £225m bid to buy-out the coffee shop chain, which is yet to be agreed by shareholders.

The Cookie Crew swept to victory at this year's Bakers' Benevolent Society Kart Grand Prix, which raised £2,500 for the charity.

US-style sandwich chain Quiznos Sub plans to double its number of stores in the UK in 2007.

Cake company Johnstone's Just Desserts has won a listing with Sainsbury's in Scotland for its new Luxury range.

Trend-spotters from the Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD) have predicted 10 key trends that will shape the fast-moving consumer goods industry in the New Year.

ADM Milling is to put up its prices on all flours by £21.25 a tonne from January 15.

RHM reported a "significant improvement" in its cakes division in its interim results this week.

Fine Lady Bakeries employee Shahid Rehman has appeared at Oxford Crown Court charged with the murder of colleague Imran Shah.

The baking industry is braced for a debate about who picks up the bill, after experts recommended flour be fortified with folic acid this week.

Warburtons is to launch its first ever national TV advertising campaign as part of a £20m marketing investment in 2007.

According to a recent report, Attitudes Towards Ethical Foods in the UK, conducted by consumer, media and market research supplier Mintel, three-quarters of British people believe that they have a duty to recycle. Julie Sloan, senior market analyst at Mintel says: "People in Britain today are clearly moving towards more ethical lifestyles and are starting to realise that their actions have consequences. In such a climate, many companies may be hoping to improve their profile by projecting a more ethical stance."

Calling your company a 'start-up' when you've got the wallop of a 300-strong homeland army of shops buttressing your advance into a foreign territory may stretch the definition of the phrase somewhat. But this is how French bakery chain Paul sees its foray into the UK retail bakery market.

Your new gateway to the baking industry, the bakeryinfo.co.uk website will offer a selection of the bits of both magazine titles, while also providing a sneak preview of upcoming news and feature exclusives.

Q How have you enjoyed the first year in your new job?

Often, I feel the country is going mad, continually trying to buy on price, rather than on quality.

RHM is a leading UK food manufacturer, with annual sales of over £1.5bn and over 15,000 employees at approximately 50 locations in the UK and France.

Premier's £1.2bn takeover of RHM came as a surprise to many investors, but the company has demonstrated an appetite for iconic British brands in the past.

A double-wall packaging system that prolongs the shelf-life of part-baked bread and reduces the quantity of additives required for its preservation has been awarded patents in the UK and France.

T he merger of RHM with Premier Foods (pgs 4,12) will create a massive new food company. It's early days, but at the moment it looks a great fit with enhanced buying power. What if, perish the thought, milling and baking go a bit pear-shaped? Because they are the sectors feeling the pressure most from increased grain costs on the one hand and supermarket price pressures on the other.

For decades, organisations in the industry have given awards, bursaries and scholarships to people in baking to enable them to develop their full potential. When every large town had its local bakery college, and the lecturer was well-known to the local baking community, persuading young workers and students to apply for these opportunities was relatively simple.

IAWS has reported an "excellent" performance for its financial year ending 31 July 2006, with pre-tax profits up by 14.6% to ?123.5m (£83.3m). Group revenue was 10.6% higher at ?1.557bn from ?1.408bn.

Over 200 people attended the Worshipful Company of Bakers' annual election banquet last week at the Mansion House in London, where Anthony Greenwood was elected as the new Master. He was presented with the chain of office by outgoing master Alan Willis.

As we are all aware, some parts of the baking industry are still diminishing.

Specialist stores such as bakeries are closing at an alarming rate, but a new type of loyalty card could halt the slide.

Year-on-year sales at Memory Lane Cakes are up 3.3% and have risen 15% at speciality bread producer Nicholas & Harris after 20 weeks of Finsbury Food Group's financial year. All the growth at Memory Lane has come in the latter half of that period, after a quiet summer.

NVQ and SVQ qualifications for the food and drink industry are being replaced by an umbrella title: N/SVQ Food Manufacture.

Research conducted after this year's NEC shows resulted in a clear majority of exhibitors saying they wanted British Baker and publisher William Reed to run a bakery show for the industry.

This year's Scotch Pie Champion is Keith Stuart, production director of Fife's RT Stuart bakery and butchery chain.

n Full-time student bakers are being encouraged to enter a new competition that showcases their bread-making and confectionery talents using California raisins.

Innovation and investment were promised by Premier Foods after it took over RHM, which comprises milling, bread and cakes businesses, for £1.2bn this week.

Dawn Foods (Evesham, Worcestershire) has announced that it will now offer a full range of frostings, with the addition of three new flavours: chocolate, strawberry and lemon. Dawn Foods is launching the full frostings range in response to research among the bakery and foodservice sectors and their customers, which shows that, when it comes to sweet bakery products, consumers are demanding novelty and variety, visual appeal and satisfying taste delivery, said the firm. No artificial colours are used throughout the range.

While the public are already aware of the benefits of smoothies as a healthy and nutritious food, King Parrot Foods (Liverpool) has come up with a twist on the concept - a smoothie that they say is even healthier and contains more vitamins than other types of smoothies. King Parrot Smoothies are sold frozen, with frozen fruit, juice and fat-free yoghurt. They are less than 1% fat and provide a minimum of two of the five portions of fruit a day. The ingredients are frozen in prime condition, says the company, and kept in that state, so there is no deterioration. They have a 12-month shelf life.

(West Sussex) has launched new packaging for Higgidy. The pies are packed in rich, dark-coloured boxes, with contrasting illustrations and copy in pink and blue. Development director and co-founder, Camilla Stephens, said: "The charming illustrations by Mark Beech animate the packaging, creating a narrative of the finest kitchen cupboard ingredients. The pies fill the individual portion boxes to capacity, and their golden baked toppings are visible through a window, designed to mirror the pie's pastry fluting."

(Wigston, Leics) is launching a new range of pre-filled microwavable Provencette paninis. Microwaved from frozen in just three minutes, the Délifrance Provencette range comes already filled and grilled to reduce preparation time. The microwavable products include chicken, sweet-cure bacon and mozzarella, traditional ham and mozzarella, cheddar and red onion, tasty tuna melt and Lincolnshire sausage, egg and bacon. Lucy Pickersgill, Délifrance UK's marketing controller, said: "There is a growing market for high-volume, ready-made, quality food, which can be prepared in the smallest kitchen space. We have perfected a panini that can be cooked in a microwave while retaining a rich taste and crunchy texture."

A biodegradable material that looks and performs like standard OPP film has been launched into the UK by NATIONAL FLEXIBLE (Bradford). Now being trialled by several bakery/sandwich firms, early indications show that it provides a lightweight, competitively-priced clear film for flowrapping retail products. Tests show that it breaks down to carbon dioxide, water and biomass, leaving no toxins.

To wrap bakery products automatically, you no longer need to use expensive plastic trays or cardboard supports, and biodegradable wrapping materials can be used on the machine, according to FDA Packaging Machinery (Norwich, Norfolk).

Ilapak (Hayes, Middlesex) has developed a unique flowrapper for Sonora Foods, which, for the first time, enables the company to produce high quality flowrapped packs with a six-month shelf life. Using Ilapak's VacMap flowrapper, Sonora can now produce new long-life packs at high speeds, at a lower cost than using a thermo-forming machine, according to the company. Brian Ridgway, managing director of Sonora Foods explains: "We're delighted with the result - the packs look excellent and, as they are print-registered, we can achieve a much higher quality presentation for maximum shelf impact. Customers perceive the contents of a flowrapped pack to be fresher than a thermo-formed pack, giving greater customer appeal and an important marketing advantage."

DayMark provides a total package of food rotational labelling that fits with any bakery operation, says UK distributor Dovemart (Winsford, Cheshire). Bespoke labels, materials and adhesives can be developed. From basic 'Day Labels' to detailed labels, the company says it can support the baker in meeting all the needs of modern food labelling legislation. A 100% biodegradable label range is now offered. Kits start from around £15 plus VAT.

The Bradman Lake Group (Bristol, Avon) has launched an infeed and form, fill and seal flowrapper combination that enables large-volume confectionery manufacturers to pack bar products in continuous operations at speeds of up to 1,000 ppm. Key to its performance is a high-tech row distribution system, which accepts and aligns bakery confectionery bars into a new high-speed Flowtronic flowrapping machine. The system features a height-adjustable, single-belt feeding process which reduces product transfer by 50%, says the firm.

Flowrappers supplied by PFM PACKAGING MACHINERY (Leeds, West Yorkshire) are ensuring that McGhee's Bakery in Glasgow can capitalise on a major expansion in its core central Scotland wholesale market, which includes the foodservice sector, independent retailers, cash and carries, local authorities and education establishments. McGhee's co-owner, Ian McGhee, explains: "Our new bakery is a huge development, with the most up-to-date bakery plant and processes. So it was vital that our packaging should be upgraded to reflect the image of the company that we are now portraying."

Ulma Packaging offers a range of flowrapping packaging equipment. For small to medium-sized bakery operations the recently updated Florida E flowrapper is suitable for a wide range of bakery applications. Dependent on product, it can operate at up to 150 packs per minute.

(Ely, Cambridgeshire), a supplier of plastic food packaging, is introducing a co-ordinated range of food containers made from PLA (polylactive acid), an environmentally-friendly material. Now available in PLA are three new salad bowls with lids in its popular Twisty range (250cc, 375cc and 500cc), as well as a Single Tortilla and Twin Tortilla pack. These products add to the PLA sandwich wedge, launched a few months ago.

Packaging specialist Sealed Air (St Neots, Cambridgeshire) has introduced an innovative form of resealable packaging to the UK bakery sector. Sealed Air's Easy Open reseal bags have a built-in recloseable feature, using pressure-sensitive tape to create an easy-open, easy-close package, which provides product containment and protection. Allied Bakeries is already operating five of the Easy Open applicators for its flowpack lines. People prefer packages that are easy to open, says Sealed Air's operations manager for the shrink packaging division, Colin Lovering. "With continued heavy investment among food producers, who are striving to meet consistently high consumer demand and increased expectations, Easy Open Reseal is the next logical development for packaging in this sector."

Marbled wedding cake

Your new gateway to the baking industry, the bakeryinfo.co.uk website will offer a selection of the bits of both magazine titles, while also providing a sneak preview of upcoming news and feature exclusives.

Often, I feel the country is going mad, continually trying to buy on price, rather than on quality.

RHM is a leading UK food manufacturer, with annual sales of over £1.5bn and over 15,000 employees at approximately 50 locations in the UK and France.

Premier's £1.2bn takeover of RHM came as a surprise to many investors, but the company has demonstrated an appetite for iconic British brands in the past.

T he merger of RHM with Premier Foods (pgs 4,12) will create a massive new food company. It's early days, but at the moment it looks a great fit with enhanced buying power. What if, perish the thought, milling and baking go a bit pear-shaped? Because they are the sectors feeling the pressure most from increased grain costs on the one hand and supermarket price pressures on the other.

For decades, organisations in the industry have given awards, bursaries and scholarships to people in baking to enable them to develop their full potential. When every large town had its local bakery college, and the lecturer was well-known to the local baking community, persuading young workers and students to apply for these opportunities was relatively simple.

As we are all aware, some parts of the baking industry are still diminishing.

Dawn Foods (Evesham, Worcestershire) has announced that it will now offer a full range of frostings, with the addition of three new flavours: chocolate, strawberry and lemon.

While the public are already aware of the benefits of smoothies as a healthy and nutritious food, King Parrot Foods (Liverpool) has come up with a twist on the concept - a smoothie that they say is even healthier and contains more vitamins than other types of smoothies.

(West Sussex) has launched new packaging for Higgidy.

(Wigston, Leics) is launching a new range of pre-filled microwavable Provencette paninis.

A biodegradable material that looks and performs like standard OPP film has been launched into the UK by NATIONAL FLEXIBLE (Bradford). Now being trialled by several bakery/sandwich firms, early indications show that it provides a lightweight, competitively-priced clear film for flowrapping retail products. Tests show that it breaks down to carbon dioxide, water and biomass, leaving no toxins.

To wrap bakery products automatically, you no longer need to use expensive plastic trays or cardboard supports, and biodegradable wrapping materials can be used on the machine, according to FDA Packaging Machinery (Norwich, Norfolk).

Ilapak (Hayes, Middlesex) has developed a unique flowrapper for Sonora Foods, which, for the first time, enables the company to produce high quality flowrapped packs with a six-month shelf life.

DayMark provides a total package of food rotational labelling that fits with any bakery operation, says UK distributor Dovemart (Winsford, Cheshire).

The Bradman Lake Group (Bristol, Avon) has launched an infeed and form, fill and seal flowrapper combination that enables large-volume confectionery manufacturers to pack bar products in continuous operations at speeds of up to 1,000 ppm.

Flowrappers supplied by PFM PACKAGING MACHINERY (Leeds, West Yorkshire) are ensuring that McGhee's Bakery in Glasgow can capitalise on a major expansion in its core central Scotland wholesale market, which includes the foodservice sector, independent retailers, cash and carries, local authorities and education establishments.

Ulma Packaging offers a range of flowrapping packaging equipment. For small to medium-sized bakery operations the recently updated Florida E flowrapper is suitable for a wide range of bakery applications. Dependent on product, it can operate at up to 150 packs per minute.

(Ely, Cambridgeshire), a supplier of plastic food packaging, is introducing a co-ordinated range of food containers made from PLA (polylactive acid), an environmentally-friendly material.

Packaging specialist Sealed Air (St Neots, Cambridgeshire) has introduced an innovative form of resealable packaging to the UK bakery sector.

According to a recent report, Attitudes Towards Ethical Foods in the UK, conducted by consumer, media and market research supplier Mintel, three-quarters of British people believe that they have a duty to recycle.

Calling your company a 'start-up' when you've got the wallop of a 300-strong homeland army of shops buttressing your advance into a foreign territory may stretch the definition of the phrase somewhat. But this is how French bakery chain Paul sees its foray into the UK retail bakery market.

Q How have you enjoyed the first year in your new job?

A double-wall packaging system that prolongs the shelf-life of part-baked bread and reduces the quantity of additives required for its preservation has been awarded patents in the UK and France.

IAWS has reported an "excellent" performance for its financial year ending 31 July 2006, with pre-tax profits up by 14.6% to ?123.5m (£83.3m). Group revenue was 10.6% higher at ?1.557bn from ?1.408bn.

Over 200 people attended the Worshipful Company of Bakers' annual election banquet last week at the Mansion House in London, where Anthony Greenwood was elected as the new Master. He was presented with the chain of office by outgoing master Alan Willis.

Specialist stores such as bakeries are closing at an alarming rate, but a new type of loyalty card could halt the slide.

Year-on-year sales at Memory Lane Cakes are up 3.3% and have risen 15% at speciality bread producer Nicholas & Harris after 20 weeks of Finsbury Food Group's financial year.

NVQ and SVQ qualifications for the food and drink industry are being replaced by an umbrella title: N/SVQ Food Manufacture.

Research conducted after this year's NEC shows resulted in a clear majority of exhibitors saying they wanted British Baker and publisher William Reed to run a bakery show for the industry.

This year's Scotch Pie Champion is Keith Stuart, production director of Fife's RT Stuart bakery and butchery chain.

n Full-time student bakers are being encouraged to enter a new competition that showcases their bread-making and confectionery talents using California raisins.

Innovation and investment were promised by Premier Foods after it took over RHM, which comprises milling, bread and cakes businesses, for £1.2bn this week.