STORY: Fire-struck The Village Bakery cuts ribbon on brand new facility as it bounces back as promised

The Village Bakery in Wrexham has not only increased sales, but will be back to full capacity less than eight months after a devastating blaze swept through one of its sites.

The good news was delivered at this week’s turf cutting ceremony, which marked the start of construction on the 140,000 sq ft facility – which will be four times the size of the one it’s replacing.

Founder and chairman Alan Jones and his wife, Wendy, cut the ribbon at the Wrexham Industrial Estate site, which is less than half a mile from the bakery that was destroyed by fire last August.

That blaze took with it the head office, the baking academy and the NPD kitchen. But the resilient company soon vowed to bounce back bigger and better than before – and so it seems it has come to pass.

At the time, production was immediately delegated to its other three operations to maintain customer supplies, but these will return to this new site once it is completed.

It is testament to the company that wholesale customers said they were so impressed with the positive way the family-run company responded to the disaster that they placed more orders.

In fact just one month after the fire the company launched a new range of American-style bagels, which are sold by a well-known chain in more than 600 of its stores nationwide.

An extension is also being built at the company’s gluten-free bakery, where they will be a completely segregated production area to make the bakery’s award-winning crumpets.

Impressively, in a few weeks’ time, the company will have restored 100 per cent of its lost production and The Village Bakery’s turnover is now higher than it was before the fire, which the family described at the time as the “darkest day” in the company’s history since Alan Jones and his father, Harry, bought the business in 1964.

The new super bakery is due to be up and running in just over 12 months and will give the company the capacity to “grow to the next level”.

At the ribbon cutting event, Alan Jones paid tribute to the “fantastic staff” who had played a vital role in the bakery’s comeback.

He said: “The staff are tremendous and the loyalty they have shown is just wonderful and I am proud of the fact that we have not made anybody redundant. The fire was a dreadful, devastating experience for all of us but at no point did we feel sorry for ourselves and we vowed to bounce back stronger than ever.

“The fact that we are a tight-knit, family operation meant we were able to make quick decisions and turn a disaster into an opportunity. The new bakery will be bigger, better and more modern and will lay the foundation for future growth and success.”

Alan’s son Christien Jones, projects director, is playing a key role in the rebirth of the Village Bakery. He said: “I’ve never been so busy. This is our ninth major project in my 30-year career and is the biggest of the lot.

“The new bakery will be the most modern in Europe and we are buying the very best equipment that’s available, mainly from Holland, Italy, France and Germany. As well as having the best equipment, we already have the best team, allied to our skills as craft bakers – that in a nutshell is our recipe for success. Today has been a significant milestone with mum and dad cutting the first sod at the site of the new bakery in Ash Road. Mum also comes from a family of bakers so it’s part of our DNA.”