Plans have been unveiled for the UK’s biggest craft bakery which will create 100 new jobs and safeguard existing ones.
The Village Bakery have submitted a planning application to Wrexham County Borough Council for the super-bakery which would cost £16 million.
If permission is granted, the 215,000 sq ft facility – which could accommodate three football pitches – will be built on land next to their two existing bakeries on Wrexham Industrial Estate.
Bosses at the family firm say the new bakery is needed to create extra capacity at the rapidly growing company.
The Village Bakery was named Wales’s fastest growing company in 2013 and the fastest growing manufacturer last year.
As a result, the number of people employed by the Village Bakery has doubled over the past two years to around 400.
Last year the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall officially opened the new £4 million Baking Academy and Innovation Centre at their site on the Wrexham Industrial Estate.
The new bakery will help safeguard existing jobs and create 100 new ones.
The news has been welcomed by Wrexham AM Lesley Griffiths, who is also the Welsh Government Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty.
She said: “The Village Bakery is a fantastic success story and is going from strength to strength.
“The plans for the new bakery are amazing and that fact that it will create 100 jobs is brilliant news for the local economy.
“Although the company is based in Wrexham, the brand is known throughout Wales and beyond.
“They believe in sustainable development and they are a living wage employer.
“The Village Bakery is a real flagship company for Wrexham and an exemplary role model for the rest of the food industry in Wales.”
In addition to the 16 acre site, the Village Bakery has also bought six acres of nearby ancient woodland which it plans to turn into a nature reserve in partnership with the North Wales Wildlife Trust.
Managing director Robin Jones said: “The new bakery will be one of the largest if not the largest craft bakery in the UK.
“In fact, it is so big that we would be able to fit seven of our Wrexham bakery into the new one, or nine of our gluten free bakery into this one.
“It will give us the ability to make some great products in an ultra-modern environment, and we’ll still keep the craft heritage at the core of everything we do.
“We also want it to be at the leading edge in terms of sustainability so we will also be looking for it to be as environmentally friendly as possible
“If we are able to secure planning permission, we’re looking forward to starting to build it next year.
“Because we’ve been growing so rapidly, the biggest problem we have now is lack of space.
“We need to create the capacity and the beauty of this bakery is that it will give us room to develop new products as well.
“At the moment, we’re sometimes saying no to customers because we don’t have the necessary capacity and that’s not good. They’ll only come back once or twice and then they’ll go elsewhere.
“This new bakery will give us the capacity to double in size. When it’s fully operational, it will bring 100 new jobs and will safeguard all of the existing 400 jobs.
“We’ve got a great reputation in the baking industry for being a baker of quality, and an innovative baker and the new bakery will help us continue to grow and prosper in the future.”
