Wirral bakery products giant Baker & Baker invests £2.9m to increase production of its American-style cookies and creates new jobs. Tony McDonough reports

Baker & Baker is investing £2.9m into its American-style cookie production line at its factory in Wirral to increase capacity and create new jobs.

Bromborough-based Baker & Baker, which employs 550 people at the Stadium Road site,  has introduced new machinery to improve the quality and output of the line.

This machinery installed includes a wirecutter, mixer and mixing bowls and weighing hoppers. New workspaces, including washrooms and sieving and de-boxing areas have also been created on the factory floor.

At the end of January, two bulk silos were installed to complement the existing units on site, which contain bulk ingredients such as sugar and flour.

The investment will also see an upskilling of existing site teams to operate the new equipment, and eight new full-time positions have been created to manage the additional capacity.

Baker & Baker is one of Europe’s leading suppliers of bakery products. It produces donuts, muffins, brownies, cookies, cakes, specialty breads and viennoiserie categories.

The firm operates a total of 12 European sites including Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, France Germany and Belgium.

Until April 2021 it was a division of US-based CSM Ingredients but now operates as an independent business. In its first full year of independence it saw sales of more than £380m. In October 2023 it reported annual sales of almost £480m.

It is a a market leader in the American Sweet Bakery cookies category in the UK, serving customers throughout the retail, food service and wholesale channels.

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John Lindsay, chief executive at Baker & Baker, said: “We have extensive capabilities in manufacturing cookies across a variety of flavours and formats, and we continue to see strong demand from customers in the UK and Europe.

“This investment was necessary to ensure we have the requisite capacity to service customers both now and in the future, while maintaining the quality of product that our consumers expect.”