Bread firm opens new £40m Corby bakery

Building work on the state-of-the-art Jacksons bakery, designed specifically to make sandwich bread for sandwich manufacturers and food service customers, started on the 10-acre site on the Willowbrook Industrial Estate in December last year.

Victoria Kennedy, general manager of Jacksons’ Corby site, said: “We’ve welcomed a great team of new people to work with us here in Corby and there’s been a real buzz around the factory, especially in the past few weeks as we have stepped up production.

“Some colleagues have moved down from our Hull bakery, which has been baking bread for more than 100 years, and have brought with them some great knowledge and industry expertise.

“Two of our management development scheme graduates have decided to stay with the business and accept their first management positions.”

More jobs are expected to be created in the future.

The bakery can make around 10,000 loaves of bread an hour and has been built to support Jacksons’ main bakery in Hull, which currently makes around two million loaves a week.

The ground floor of the new bakery is big enough to fit two full-sized football pitches.

And there are 2.2km of conveyers inside - equivalent to 517 double-decker buses parked end to end.

Norman Soutar, chief executive of the William Jackson Food Group which owns the bakery, said: “The group, backed by its family shareholders, has invested significantly in its Hull bakery over recent years to enable it to continue to grow.

“The new bakery, with its perfect location and skilled team, is part of our strategic plan to support this growth further.

“We take a long-term approach to the individual businesses in the group, allowing them time to grow and develop and we’re very much looking forward to seeing how the next chapter of the bakery’s life unfolds.”

Jacksons, which has baked bread on the same site in Hull since 1907, is part of the family-owned William Jackson Food Group, which also owns Abel & Cole, Wellocks, MyFresh and The Food Doctor.

In addition to making bread used in many UK prepared sandwiches, the business makes branded bread for sale in UK supermarkets - Jackson’s Yorkshire’s Champion - which has grown every year since its launch in 2012.

Jacksons say they are still recruiting any people should keep an eye on their website for vacancies.