Fire has gutted Warburtons’ Wednesbury bakery, its largest in the UK, which is leaving retailers throughout the Midlands and north-west short of key bread lines.
The Wednesbury bakery produced two million loaves a week, which represented 20% of the company’s production, and consisted of two plants covering 10 acres.
Warburtons said the blaze, which caused £30m worth of damage, had knocked an average of four to five lines out of every store, including its Fuller Flavour brand.
The brand could only be made at the Wednesbury site and is delisted until further
notice. However, sales director Marc Dubery said limited deliveries had been restored to all customers 48 hours after the fire, which was on January 4, and assured customers: “We aim to bring all other brands back to normal production by the end of the month. We are consolidating distribution from our existing bases at Stone, Staffordshire, and another site two miles from Wednesbury.”
The company, , which holds The Grocer Gold Award for best branded supplier, is stepping up production at other sites and aims to restore production at Wednesbury by the spring.
Dubery added: “We will make sure product quality is not compromised during this period.”
But Mark Bamforth, who runs an independent store, Bamforth Food & Wine in Lytham St Anne’s, which was crowned Best Local Store in the Booker Prize for Excellence, said: “I have been without 13 lines at least since the Tuesday after the fire and my bread sales are down 25%.”
Major multiples can switch between bread suppliers, said Bamforth, but smaller independent stores have been hit hard because they are supplied solely by Warburtons, and have no viable alternative.
Rod Addy
The Wednesbury bakery produced two million loaves a week, which represented 20% of the company’s production, and consisted of two plants covering 10 acres.
Warburtons said the blaze, which caused £30m worth of damage, had knocked an average of four to five lines out of every store, including its Fuller Flavour brand.
The brand could only be made at the Wednesbury site and is delisted until further
notice. However, sales director Marc Dubery said limited deliveries had been restored to all customers 48 hours after the fire, which was on January 4, and assured customers: “We aim to bring all other brands back to normal production by the end of the month. We are consolidating distribution from our existing bases at Stone, Staffordshire, and another site two miles from Wednesbury.”
The company, , which holds The Grocer Gold Award for best branded supplier, is stepping up production at other sites and aims to restore production at Wednesbury by the spring.
Dubery added: “We will make sure product quality is not compromised during this period.”
But Mark Bamforth, who runs an independent store, Bamforth Food & Wine in Lytham St Anne’s, which was crowned Best Local Store in the Booker Prize for Excellence, said: “I have been without 13 lines at least since the Tuesday after the fire and my bread sales are down 25%.”
Major multiples can switch between bread suppliers, said Bamforth, but smaller independent stores have been hit hard because they are supplied solely by Warburtons, and have no viable alternative.
Rod Addy
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