Heygate Group: confirms site for Manchester

Northampton / UK. (hg) Heygates Limited, Britain´s biggest independent miller, is planning to build a 20 million GBP plant for its «Fine Lady of Banbury Bakeries» in Manchester. An application has been submitted to Manchester City Council to build the facility on a 20-acre industrial development site.

Joe Street, managing director of Fine Lady Bakeries: «We are very interested in building a bakery in east Manchester which is in a great location for a northern base as it offers excellent transport links both north and south. We don´t want to anticipate the outcome of the planning application but this is an exciting first step for us. We see this as a long term investment in Manchester, creating jobs and other benefits for the local community.

Eddie Smith, chief executive of urban regeneration company New East Manchester, said: «It´s great to have been chosen as the preferred location for this new factory. We have been working closely with Fine Lady Bakeries to secure the right site for them and we believe Central Park exactly meets their needs. Earlier this year we successfully relocated the Greggs North West bakery to Openshaw, safeguarding 220 jobs, and this new plant would eventually deliver an additional 250 jobs for Newton Heath and the wider east Manchester area».

Fine Lady Bakeries Limited is part of the Heygate Group, which is a private business wholly owned by the Heygate family. The Group is best known within the UK with a turnover in excess of 100 million GBP per annum. Fine Lady Bakeries was started in the 1950s by local bakers in Banbury and subsequently became part of the Heygate Group in the mid 1960s, moving to its present site in 1965. During the following years additional land has been acquired and the Bakery now occupies a ten acre site. Since moving to its present site, the Company has continued to invest and is now one of the largest and most modern bread bakeries in Europe, producing in excess of 150 million items per year.

Info: «Heygates: New jobs in prospect at 50 million GBP bakery» (2009-09-15).