Announcing the move today (January 20), the company, which was previously McCambridge Foods’ cake business, said it would allow it to build bakery ‘centres’ of excellence’ at its most suitable facilities.
“Bright Blue Foods has reviewed its operational strategy for the next few years,” said ceo Andrew Johnson. “A major objective of the review has been to decide how we make the most effective use of our factory footprint to best meet the future requirements of customers.
‘Key objectives’
“One of our key objectives is that, for our chosen product sectors, we create industry leading manufacturing centres of excellence in our most suitable facilities.”
Bright Blue Foods plans to transfer Manchester production to its newly reconfigured Shadsworth bakery in Lancashire and, in the case of Christmas cake, to its Decorated Cake Centre of Excellence at Szczecin, Poland. The Polish factory had been part of McCambridge Foods’ assets since 2007.
The Jesse Oldfield bakery in Manchester employs 60 people and the company said it believed its closure would result in 57 job losses.
‘Core product strategy’
However, it pledged to continue developing the products made at the factory. “As part of our core product strategy we are committed to develop the market in slab cake, loaf cakes and Christmas cakes.
“We believe that the current products produced at Jesse Oldfield will benefit from being transferred into alternative modern facilities where the infrastructure, manufacturing capabilities and product flows have been designed to meet the current and future requirements of our customers.”
Bright Blue Foods was bought by NGBI Private Equity for £23.5M at the end of 2012 and has bakeries in Blackburn, Bradford and Salisbury as well as Manchester and Szczecin.