Northern Ireland bakery Crust & Crumb is investing £5.8 million in the increased production of its pizza products.
The Fermanagh-based bakery manufactures chilled, frozen and gluten-free dough-based products to supermarkets and foodservice customers in Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Great Britain.
Crust & Crumb operates three production facilities including a dedicated gluten-free site and specialises in own-label pizza bases, topped pizza, flatbreads and tortillas.
With the capital, the company will purchase new equipment to enhance automation and create a new product development kitchen. It also plans to create 88 jobs, which will be recruited over the next three years.
“This investment will help us strengthen our competitive position, scale our business, improve efficiencies, expand our current pizza portfolio and drive sales in new markets including Europe and Australia,” said Crust & Crumb group commercial manager, Clive Gilpin.
The announcement of the investment was made by Northern Ireland’s Economy Minister, Diane Dodds.
“This investment is welcome news for the local Fermanagh and Omagh District Council area and once in place, the 88 new jobs will contribute over £2 million in additional annual salaries for the local economy,” she said.
In addition, Invest Northern Ireland has contributed £502,600 which will be used to support the new jobs, equipment and marketing development activities. Invest NI has worked in partnership with the bakery since 2012 to support the growth of its team, the development of new products and increase in exports.
Crust & Crumb’s Gilpin added: “We initially used Invest NI’s R&D support to develop our gluten free and protein pizza ranges. This support has been key in ensuring that we are constantly at the forefront of new trends and has helped us to secure major deals with leading retailers.
“Going forward, we remain focused on growing our share of the RoI and European pizza markets and the expansion of our team will help us to do this and create new pizza flavours that will appeal to a wider market.”
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