Me and My Factory
Layers of expertise at BakeAway Corby
The private label dough manufacturer started life in 2010 as family-run business.
Just six years later, BakeAway was acquired by Cérélia, as part of the French owned pastry and dough manufacturer’s strategy to expand its global foothold.
Investment into the Corby site has been sizeable to date, with Cérélia injecting £30m into the new site which BakeAway made its home four years ago.
The business has continued to see healthy growth in its private label offering since, with the company currently looking to invest further into the Corby site’s capabilities.
Total pastry sales have grown by +6% 2023 vs.2022, predominantly driven by puff pastry.
BakeAway, at a glance
Company: Bakeaway
Address: Unit 1b, Furnace Way Centrix Park NN17 5BE
Number of employees: 152
Size of site: 8,700 square metres
Output: More than 300,000kg of pastry made each week
Shift patterns: Panama shift schedule
Types of lines: Lines 1 & 2 ready roll pastry, line 3 block pastry, line 4 on temporary pause, line 5 cookie dough and pizza dough
Further investment to come
Ready to use dough and pastry has been a climbing trend, driven by consumers ditching the rolling pins in favour for a more convenient option. BakeAway already folds an estimated 16.5m layers of pastry each week!
With capacity and capability expansion firmly on the cards, the business already has ownership of the land next door. Its growth was in fact built into the current architecture, with a window that can be easily knocked through and converted into a hallway between the existing building and any new one.
Efficiency
Locally sourced flour
Efficiency lies at the heart of BakeAway – one of the reasons Cérélia was keen to invest, given its strategy to purchase businesses wherein ingredients can be sourced locally. As part of BakeAway’s commitment to ‘a better world for all’ its dough is made predominantly from UK sourced ingredients, with its flour millers within a 15 miles radius of the factory.
Waste policy
Waste is also a key part of this commitment, with some of the lines designed to revert cut-offs (where possible) back to the start so they can be included. This is suitable for dough which hasn’t been laminated. Any waste that can’t be used in this way is sent off for anaerobic digestion.
“Awareness is the first thing we need to do – that everyone understand that that block of pastry on the floor, where it’s going to, what it means,” Marc Garcia, BakeAway’s senior operations director explained.
He added that the company has ‘been smart’ with how the machinery is set up and that many of these intuitive ideas have come from the operators.
“I’m not naïve to think I have all the solutions; giving the conduit for people to put suggestions in really has made a difference, it’s driven our waste level really low to 2.3%.”
Automation and productivity
Efficiency in productivity is also top of mind. Walking through the Corby unit, there were few employees on the floor, with the leadership team explaining automation is a crucial part of BakeAway’s operations, alongside a small but productive human team.
“One of our USPs is to automate wherever possible,” Garcia said. “What that allows us to do is to have a core skill level, it takes the reliance on agency away.
“It also reduces manual handling and it’s a safer environment as well.”
With BakeAway, like many food companies, being a peak and trough business, with certain times busier than others, its high level of autonomy means it is less dependent on agency workers which Garcia noted is particularly competitive given the factory’s location.
“It’s quite a competitive area – we have quite a few neighbours looking for the same kind of people.”
Looking at people
This also means that recruitment is highly competitive too, so the company ensures that for those working there, the business is extra appealing.
“We have introduced flexible workers, mainly aimed at the office workers, having core hours that people can flex around so it fits with childcare and other situations.”
As part of its core commitments to ‘a better world’, the company also has an employee assistance programme which provides support to its team across a variety of avenues.
“We offer great facilities here…but away from these walls, it’s important to know people are being looked after as well. That helps for our retention of our staff and bringing new people into the business,” Garcia explained.
The company has also launched what Garcia described as ‘modern apprenticeships’: “We have a raw material planner and production planner doing an apprenticeship. We’re going to expand that across all departments in the coming years.”
Despite the emptier rooms, when speaking with the team members at BakeAway during our Me & My Factory tour, it was evident morale was high.
Line operator Thomas described the work as ‘relaxing’ and that his colleagues are just “really nice people”.
Mixer Shay agreed: “I get on with everyone”, adding that he found each day to be ‘interesting’.
Reflecting on own his time at the company, Garcia said: “Everyone is so friendly. I have been here for just over a year now; they made me really welcome.”
Overall, he said that the company has cultivated a culture of ‘passion’ and ‘doing things in a better way’.
Watch our exclusive tour of the facilities and hear from the team directly, in the above video, as we step inside BakeAway.
