Lindum has completed a £700,000 upgrade of staff welfare facilities at a bakery in Bedford for international food manufacturer Lantmännen Unibake.
The work is part of Lantmännen’s five-year business growth plan and has included new changing rooms, a new canteen and office suite refurbishments.
The work was carried out by Lindum’s Peterborough-based construction teams and sits alongside Lantmännen’s £4m investment at its site in Milton Keynes.
The development is said to be in direct response to growth in the burger market and will allow the company to meet the growing demand for its frozen baked goods.
Lantmännen Unibake UK, part of the Sweden-based agri-food group Lantmännen, supplies bakery products to retailers, wholesalers and the foodservice sector.
Howard Coleman, Project Manager at Lantmännen Unibake UK, said: “Our current office accommodation is over capacity, significantly at Milton Keynes. With additional headcount anticipated to drive the five-year growth agenda, there is a need to provide spaces that support the opportunities and ambition in Lantmännen Unibake UK.
“This is a great opportunity to align some central support functions in a new fit for purpose site. This move will help improve communications between departments, allowing us to strengthen our cross-functional service.
“These proposed changes along with the investment into Bedford is preparing us to meet the technical standards and demands by our customers in order to maintain a “˜retail ready’ site.”
The changes to the site in Milton Keynes include a “state-of-the-art” automated packaging system and quality vision system, which will ensure higher quality standards are met whilst reducing wastage.
Lindum contracts manager Paddy McAuley said construction work at the Bedford site had gone smoothly.
“We first worked with Lantmännen Unibake at its site in Milton Keynes, where we provided some temporary office space,” he said. “This led to the work at Bedford, which saw us completely refurbish the staff facilities.
“The work was carried out on a “˜live’ site, meaning we had to ensure we didn’t interrupt production at the bakery. For this reason, it was vital that we kept in regular communication with the team at Lantmännen.
“Where possible, Lindum uses its own directly-employed trade operatives on site, which helps us guarantee the quality of the work, although we did call on some specialist subcontracts for certain elements of this work.
“We are delighted to have a high-profile company like Lantmännen among our clients.”
