STORY: UNOX facilitates food-to-go at Birds Bakery
With 62 stores across the Midlands, with the most recent store opening in Nottingham last Saturday, serving a vast range of products including breads, cakes, confectionery, savoury and seasonal treats, Birds Bakery knows the importance of sourcing the right kitchen equipment for its in-store operations.
With its ovens visible to customers behind the counter, the family-run business set about sourcing a bakery oven could deliver consistent results but looks great too. It turned to UNOX, experts in delivering innovative ovens which help operators to overcome their challenges.
Meeting individual needs
Birds Bakery was founded in 1919 by three brothers supplying baked goods and confectionary and still remains under the ownership of the Birds family. The business has 61stores within the Midlands and a main bakery operation in Derby, employing more than 700 people in total.
After the success of an initial trial, Birds has partnered with UNOX to install two BAKERTOP MIND.MapsTM countertop convection ovens in all new and refurbished stores as part of an ongoing programme of refits and new openings.
It means staff can benefit from an innovative self-cleaning mode, Data Driven Cooking technology with remote monitoring via internet connectivity and a consistent bake every time. All this and more is available as standard with the BAKERTOP range and the CHEFTOP MIND.MapsTM range of combi ovens, which are used in a few of the smaller stores where space is restricted.
Mike Holling, Sales and Marketing Director at Birds Bakery, said: “The relationship with UNOX started when I visited another bakery who were using them and I liked the look of the ovens in the retail environment. I started to do a bit of research, saw UNOX at a couple of exhibitions and had been impressed by the overall operation. Of course, it’s fine to look good in the retail setting – but they needed to be able to deliver on the bake too.
“I went though all the procedures, saw how the oven operated, met the team and it was soon clear this was the kit for us. Our initial trial in 2019 used two BAKERTOP ovens, one on top of the other in a column. We needed the extra capacity and that enabled us to do it without increasing the footprint. And we haven’t looked back since.”
Facilitating food to go
The UNOX ovens are used in stores to bake a variety of products including savouries, sausages, baguettes and confectionary, including pastries and croissants. Bread and bread rolls are baked in the central Derby bakery and then delivered to stores.
Mike Holling adds: “There is no question that these ovens have helped us to develop our food to go market – a market in which we expect to see continued growth in this category due to coronavirus. The carvery joints, for example, have given us to opportunity to introduce a hot carvery sandwich option, which is something we’ve wanted to do for a number of years but we knew we needed the right equipment. UNOX ovens include the option of a food probe and this is vital to getting the meats cooked perfectly.
“The self-cleaning process is a dream (in fact the ovens in the main Derby shop look as good today as they did when they arrived nearly two years ago) and the flexibility of configurations is a huge bonus. The BAKERTOP ovens are available in four, six or ten grid models so we can flex the sizes and stack them how we need to fit the individual space in each store.”
Data Driven Cooking
UNOX BAKERTOP and CHEFTOP ovens also come with MIND.Maps™ technology, which enables Data Driven Cooking for improved efficiency and perfect results.
Aside from touch-screen controls and ready-made cooking programmes from the innovative control panel, staff can benefit from wireless connectivity to store, share and recall cooking programmes, monitor automatic washing programmes, monitor consumption statistics and download HACCP data. All of this, of course, with consistent, reliable cooking performance 24 hours a day.
Mike Hollings concludes: “The support from UNOX is excellent. With their support we are connecting the ovens via the internet so we can monitor performance and operation from a central site. This allows us to monitor what each oven in each individual shop is doing, what time they are turned on, when they are cleaned, how many bakes etc.
“It gives us ultimate control and it’s easy to see how that can deliver efficiencies for lower costs and enhanced performance. I fully endorse the use of technology in this way and I only expect it to become more valuable going forward.”
Gary Nunn, Managing Director at UNOX UK, said: “Birds Bakery is a fantastic example of a retail bakery closely following trends and demonstrating flexibility to ensure it continues to meet consumer demands.
“We’re delighted that they have chosen UNOX ovens to help them deliver those goals and it’s a testament to both the quality of our ovens and the strength of our relationship that we have been able to meet their individual needs in every new and refurbished store.”
For more information visit www.unox.com/en_gb/
