Brioche Pasquier has started work on its first UK bakery.

Key stakeholders attended a ceremony to mark the start of construction of international bakery giant Brioche Pasquier’s new factory in Milton Keynes.

The 230,000sq ft site will open in December 2015 and is the company’s first in the UK.

Senior figures, including the Mayor of Milton Keynes, Milton Keynes Council CEO David Hill and development director of Hampton Brook Ian Jackson, which is handling the development, turned out to see the firm’s CEO Pascal Pasquier announce the first phase of construction.

Completed

The first 160,000sq ft bakery will be completed by the end of this year, followed by the addition of production lines, before becoming fully operational at the end of 2015. A further 70,000sq ft site is proposed within five years.

Pasquier said: “We will continue our development in the UK through this new production site. Our objective is to adapt to the British market whilst holding onto our French traditions of production, using our unique baking methods. The new factory will also enable us to become closer to our customers and distributors within the UK.”

Brioche Pasquier was founded in 1936 in France and now has operations worldwide, in regions including North and South America, Australia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Benelux, Asia and Africa. The French company first came to the UK in 2001.