Finedale Foods doubles output with £400k factory investment

Investment into its Frank Dale brand followed a strong 2022 for the business, which allowed the manufacturer to invest in key areas of growth.

“Last year volumes returned to pre-pandemic levels, having appointed Central Foods as our exclusive distributor,”​ explained Finedale Foods managing director Edward Miles. “This has enabled us to focus on business recovery and manufacturing, which has given us more time to deal with industry wide supply chain challenges.​

Change of approach ​

“This change of approach allowed us to seize the opportunity to gain wider exposure in the wholesale market.​ As the volumes returned in 2022, it gave us the confidence we needed to accelerate our progression and development in the factory,”​

Frank Dale made a number of key improvements to its production line over the course of 2022 focused on production and the need to increase output.

This included the purchase of more blast freezing, rack cooling, more power to the site to run the new kit and the purchase of automated quiche cutters to remove production bottlenecks.

Other investments​

Other investments included a new metal detector, a pastry mixer dedicated to larger quiche production, more racks and the replacement of older equipment to cope with the larger volumes.

These investments allowed the manufacturer to run more lines at the same time, with the business effectively producing twice the volume it did in 2017.

Commenting on the future of the company, Miles concluded: “Plans for this year include rebranding Frank Dale and reviewing and expanding the range. As social calendars return to normality, we have seen Frank Dale reach a much wider audience and we need to ensure the range continues to pack a punch at events and occasions.”​