Bright Blue to close Manchester cake factory

BRIGHT Blue Foods, the former cake division of food manufacturer the McCambridge Group, has proposed closing its Manchester factory with the loss of nearly all 60 jobs.

Bright Blue, which is owned by NBGI Private Equity, said the closure would allow it to make the most effective use of its “factory footprint”.

The business currently operates from four primary manufacturing locations in the UK including the Jesse Oldfield bakery in Trafford Park, Manchester where 57 of the 60 jobs are expected to go.

There are also facilities in Blackburn, Bradford and Salisbury, and a further site in Poland.

The Manchester bakery produces slab cake, loaf cakes and Christmas cakes and these lines will transfer to Blackburn, while some of the Christmas cake work will go to Poland.

Chief executive Andrew Johnson said: “Bright Blue Foods has reviewed its operational strategy for the next few years. A major objective of the review has been to decide how we make the most effective use of our factory footprint to best meet the future requirements of customers.

“One of our key objectives is that, for our chosen product sectors, we create industry-leading manufacturing centres of excellence in our most suitable facilities.

“We believe the current products produced at Jesse Oldfield will benefit from being transferred into alternative modern facilities where the infrastructure, manufacturing capabilities and product flows have been designed to meet the current and future requirements of our customers.”

Bright Blue was formed following the acquisition of McCambridge’s cakes business for £23.5m in December 2012.