Hunter's Bakery invest in the future with new ovens

HUNTER'S Bakery has announced that it has invested £100,000 in extending the bakery and installing two new state-of-the-art gas ovens.

The news comes in the wake of the bakery celebrating National Craft Bakers' Week where director David Hunter took local primary school children around the new kitchen. The bakery is also celebrating it's fourth generation as a family run business which has been "making and baking" since 1920. Hunters, which has shops in Ballykelly, Limavady and Coleraine, promoted the second annual celebration of the art of hand-crafted, freshly baked goods. Fourth generation director David Hunter says Hunters have come out tops during the recession, with thousands of customers a week buying the artisan breads, custom-made cakes and visiting the 120-seat caf, the home and gift shop plus the ever-popular 'Books Upstairs 'at the main site in Limavady. Last week David opened up the kitchen for a special tour with local school children and emphasised the importance of the word 'visiting' in the Hunter's lexicon.

David said: "We've had quite a few groups tour the bakery. I think people are very interested in the craftsmanship and how local it all is. We had the local Probus Club (the UK wide network of retired professional people) approach us for a tour and they were bowled over by the complexity. We do pride ourselves on the quality and the attention to detail we give. We have also had visits by local schools which gives the kids a good idea of how the goods are produced. And we recently hosted a fundraising breakfast for the British Heart Foundation Big Breakfast raising 2,300. Being local, our community is really very important to us."

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The bakery sources locally wherever possible - organic milk, eggs and flour which means that food miles are also kept to a minimum.This year the business, which includes brother Shaun and father Brian, a master baker, has invested 100,000 in extending the bakery and adding two new natural gas ovens. On top of this 15 members of staff have nearly completed their in-house training for NVQs in craft bakery. "The investment in equipment and training will ensure that our quality always remains great," commented David.

National Craft Bakers' week was held from June 7-12 with the theme 'The Shop That Never Sleeps'. Hunter's one of about 4,000 small craft bakeries in the UK, each typically employing between five and 25 people, 350 medium-sized bakeries and 150 large plant bakeries.

A 'craft' baker is one who makes breads and pastries from scratch rather than the supermarket style whereby frozen uncooked product is finished off in an in-store bake-off oven.

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