Holloway Biscuit Company to expand its Eastmoor factory, creating 220 jobs

The Holloway Biscuit Company has confirmed plans to expand its factory on the Eastmoor industrial estate, creating around 220 permanent jobs over the next two years. The announcement was made to staff at a meeting on the factory floor this morning, and details were still emerging as managers briefed suppliers and the city council.

The firm, which has been owned by the same family since it opened a small bakery on Holloway Road in the 1930s, will build a 9,000-square-metre extension on land it bought from a neighbouring warehouse operator last year. Two new ovens, each around 80 metres long, will allow it to bake oat biscuits and filled crackers that are currently made under contract by other companies.

Managing director Philippa Haldane said the total investment would be about €41m, funded largely by the company's own reserves and a loan from a regional lender. She said orders from supermarkets and food-service customers had grown steadily for three years and the existing site had been running weekend shifts since the spring.

We have been saying no to customers for too long. This lets us bake what we sell, here in Wrenhaven, rather than send work elsewhere.

Training and traffic

Most of the new roles will be in production, engineering and warehouse work, with shifts starting at the end of next year. The company said it would run a paid training scheme with Eastmoor College for maintenance engineers, a skill local employers have struggled to find. Ken Aldous, who chairs the Eastmoor Business Group, called the news "the best this estate has had in a decade".

Residents on Larkspur Road have raised concerns about lorry movements, which the firm expects to rise from around 60 to 95 a day. The planning application, which will go before councillors in the new year, includes a new access road from the ring road so that delivery vehicles do not pass houses. A public drop-in session is planned at the Eastmoor community hall next month.