We have seen great growth in our bacon range over the last 5 years and are proud to be operating as the UK’s best-selling dry cure bacon brand*. It would be easy to stand still and enjoy where we are but that’s simply not how we operate. In order to stay competitive we needed to increase capacity and efficiencies whilst keeping true to the premium nature of our product.

Anyone who works with Simon knows how much he loves kit. After attending the massive Anuga exhibition in Germany last year he was blown away with the new technology on show and what it could bring to our production line – crucially speed and capacity whilst reducing packaging and creating less waste.

While we were all excited to see the machinery installed last month into our purpose built factory extension – lovingly called ‘The Bacon Room’, we are also already well versed that the new kit “Cost twice what I paid for Findony Farm back in 1994!” Once you see the ‘cool’ lasers scanning the loins you can see why – this is a serious bit of kit! Prior to slicing, the loins are scanned so that each pack is sliced to maximum accuracy. We have gone from 90% usage of the pork loin to over 97%!

We can now slice, pack and box 45 packs per minute with 7 people (an improvement from 15 packs with 10 people) and can produce 200,000 packs a week.

As ever our introduction of machinery into the factory isn’t about replacing our staff but assisting them in more efficient production. With Christmas looming there is plenty to get on with!

While it was the right time to move on from our sleeve design, we worked hard to capture the same brand impact in the new printed top film design. Incorporating a soft touch lacquer to keep a nod to the paper feel of the old sleeve, the easy peel of the top film also means the clear base tray is easy to recycle. We have been delighted by the positive reaction of our customers so far and continue to work hard to meet the growing demand for our wide range of products.

*SOURCE: IRI till data 52wk w/e 19th April 2020