A baking is breaking into new export markets in Europe and the Middle East – and has also set its sights on America.
Village Bakery in Wrexham has secured new global contracts in Iceland, Malta and Cyprus for loaves, rolls and crumpets as well as exporting through UK retailers to parts of Asia.
They are also close to breakthroughs in southern Europe and the US.
It is major boost for the company that was hit by a devastating blaze last August that ripped through their headquarters on Wrexham Industrial Estate.
Luckily, nobody was hurt and undaunted the staff and management of the family firm vowed to come back stronger than ever.
Managing director Robin Jones said: “We’re forging ahead with new export markets .
“It is something we’ve been working on for about 18 months, but in the last few months it’s come to fruition.
“We’ve now got products into a retailer in Iceland, the country not the supermarket, and we’ve also got products going into independent retailers in Cyprus and Malta.
“Export is an area we’re keen to grow and we’re now also working with a very large customer in southern Europe, so hopefully by the summer the products will also be being sold there.
“We deal with all the major retailers in the UK now and we also supply their overseas stores in places like Singapore, Hong Kong and the Middle East.
“What we’re doing now is a natural progression – the brilliant thing about exporting is that there’s a big world out there and there is huge potential.
“The perception of British products is excellent and then when you add in the Village Bakery’s Welsh heritage it just adds further provenance to the story.
“We’ve even had interest from the United States where they were blown away by our Welsh Cakes, and that hopefully should start in July.
“The fire obviously did set us back a bit, hence why we’re only launching now in Iceland, Malta and Cyprus but we’re not dwelling on that and feeling sorry for ourselves. It’s very much business as usual as far as we’re concerned.”
■ Robin is speaking at the next meeting of Wrexham Business Professionals at the Catrin Finch Centre at Glyndwr University on Thursday, February 27. The other speakers are Sara Moseley, Director of MIND Cymru, and Kathryn Roberts, the Wales representative of the Downing Street task force on well-being in the workplace.
