Country Style buys frozen desserts site

The 50,000sq ft RHM factory, in Flint, North Wales, manufactures branded and retailers' own-label desserts, employing 200 people.

Country Style director Joe Wood told British Baker that the new site would run in addition to its Stockton plant, which manufactures a complementary range of products, including frozen roulades.

The Flint factory is connected to its own cold-storage and warehousing facilities, and manufactures premium cheesecakes, gateaux, tortes and meringues, under brands including Cadbury.

The Stockton site was bought out of receivership from Hibernia Foods in 2003.

Head office functions for the Flint site will be conducted from Country Style's Leeds premises.

Country Style has also acquired the licence to produce Cadbury frozen cakes and desserts, a range it intends to develop further across its entire portfolio, said Wood. "We have had the Sara Lee brand licence for three years now and Cadbury will sit very well alongside that."

Last March, following the acquisition of RHM, Premier Foods announced that it wanted to divest the company's "non-core" frozen businesses, which included factories making frozen pies, ready-meals and desserts.

The ready-meals part of the business has now been sold to Kerry Foods.

RHM's Kent-based pies business, which manufactures products including McDougalls pies, is still up for sale.

Country Style Foods manufactures bakery products and desserts for leading retailers and foodservice operators.

The family business, founded in 1960 by Tony and Christine Wood, operates from facilities in Leeds, Grimsby, Stockton and Peterlee and employs over 1,400 people.

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