The fast-growing UK artisanal bakery and café group - which celebrated its 10th anniversary in May - has escalated from a single site in the small seaside town of Southwold to nine sites across Norfolk and Suffolk, along with a bakery school, a supper club and and the recently launched Mini Magpie concept.
The company hatched its first 'mini me' in the town of Beccles at the end of January, quickly followed by another in Wells-Next-The-Sea.
The finalisation of an 11,000 sq ft central bakery in Walpole is expected to see turnover treble.
The company earmarked the £80k investment more than a year ago for the new facility, but its construction was hindered due a series of ‘big delays’.
Staff and equipment from its bakery in Halesworth have already been successfully relocated to the new site, with similar plans for its bakery in Darsham set to follow. Ten new recruits will also join the 20-strong Walpole workforce.
‘One to watch’
“We’ve been planning this move for some time and it will make a huge difference to operations,” said owner and CEO Steve Magnall.
“The new bakery will mean more space, more volume and a much greater control on output and efficiency across the production line.
“It will also reduce wasted miles as everything will be more centralised to serve our nine sites” in Norwich, Blakeney, Holt, Wells-Next-The- Sea, Beccles, Darsham, Aldeburgh, Woodbridge and Southwold.
According to Guy Watts, head of bakery and production, who oversaw the project, “it’s a substantial operation to move a whole bakery … but the whole move has been plain sailing for the most part. The new site gives us so much more scope for upscaling production.”
The company’s plans to make 2023 a year of note don’t stop there, either.
“We have big plans over the next few months with an exciting new Christmas range coming soon,” said Magnall.
“Two Magpies Bakery Group is definitely one to watch.”
