Mass production for new bakery
May’s Bakery is set for its latest incarnation as a mass production bakery in Washdyke.
Owner Bernie Sugrue says the company’s new baking factory was set to drastically increase its production capacity.
Plumbers, builders, electricians and flooring tradesmen are at work in the Hilton Highway site, which should open to customers in November or December.
Sugrue said a pie machine will soon be installed which can produce 2400 pies an hour, slightly faster than its new Italian rotary oven, which can bake 1000 mince pies every 25 minutes.
A sausage roll machine producing four sausage rolls every five seconds is also due to be installed.
It will be joined by a bread machine from the North Island, a stress-free dough divider for producing Turkish breads and a biscuit-making machine.
‘‘It just has to go that way these days. We have to do more with less.’’ May’s Bakery owner Bernie Sugrue
Sugrue expects test baking to begin on August 20, and admits it will be a challenge to learn how all the new high technology machines work.
Sugrue said the new bakery’s larger machines would likely enable staff to produce far more goods than its current Stafford St site.
Time currently wasted carrying goods up and down stairs would also be saved. ‘‘It just has to go that way these days,’’ Sugrue said. ‘‘We have to do more with less.’’
Sugrue said the future of the bakery’s Stafford St site was uncertain. The bakery was in negotiations with the building’s owners.