The deal will result in the opening of a modern factory to bring British pâtisserie style puds to stores throughout the country.
Sainsbury’s chilled desserts – ranging from Sherry Triffle to Chocolate Sundae – are already produced at the Fakenham site. The plant will be run as a joint partnership between the retailer and Hain Daniels – the American owner of the Linda McCartney factory in Fakenham.
The official opening of the £20M factory on Friday (September 20) followed a trial earlier this year to create premium desserts using British ingredients.
The cold dessert category
Rob Burnett, chief executive, Hain Daniels Group, said the Fakenham factory was the culmination of a collaboration with Sainsbury to provide the highest-quality British products in the cold dessert category.
“As leaders of multifaceted food manufacturing across the UK, our investment in this project alone highlights our commitment to the long term and continued success of Hain Daniels and its partners,” said Burnett.
“We are also proud to be a key employer in the region and supporter of local initiatives in the community; we’re really excited about the future.”
Mike Coupe, group commercial director at Sainsbury, said the factory opening was a great milestone for a number of reasons.
“Not only does Fakenham create world inspiring desserts for our customers, it’s in line with our 2020 commitment to double our sales of British food,” said Coupe.
“Working in partnership with our suppliers, we’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far and the proof will be in the pudding as we head towards further new products coming off the production line.”
‘Huge boost to the local economy’
Tom FitzPatrick, leader, North Norfolk District Council, told FoodManufacture.co.uk the expansion of Hain Daniels was very welcome. “It will be a huge boost to the local economy, and I am delighted to learn that the expansion will lead to the creation of some 350 jobs,” said FitzPatrick.
“This is great news for the people of Fakenham and the surrounding area, and shows that business in north Norfolk and Fakenham in particular are expanding and leading the way out of what has been a prolonged and challenging economic climate.”
More than a 100 dessert lines are produced a day. These include 15 ready-to-serve desserts, including in the Taste the Difference range: mango and coconut panna cotta, passion fruit and Belgian chocolate torte and raspberry panna cotta terrine.
A specialist in-house dessert maker creates new recipes and trains other colleagues.
To view the 1,142 food and drink manufacturing roles now available on Foodmanjobs, click here.