One of the leading specialist bakeries in the Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire area is now benefitting from the use of an Oliver Douglas Panamatic 700 stand-alone washing installation. The facility now running at the Southwell premises of Gadsby Bakery – part of the Lincolnshire Co-operative – is playing a key role in the continuous operational efficiency of the baking process, and offering tangible benefits over previous cleaning methods.
Located in a central area of the baking facility, the Panamatic 700 handles a wide range of cooking vessels, utensils and tools – both stainless steel and plastic. The company uses the unit on an ongoing basis with highly effective washing achieved in a relatively short programming time, enabling the unit to be refilled continually to keep pace with the production process.
“We produce up to 5,000 loaves per night shift as well as approximately 100,000 rolls and 6,000 confectionery items per day, so our need to achieve washing standards of the highest level is ongoing,” comments Colin Taylor, Gadsby Bakery Business Development Manager.
“Items ranging from utensils, plastic containers, mixing pots, and whisks to a vast range of tools are loaded through the large front opening door, either directly onto a sliding tray or into baskets designed for smaller items – both of which were also supplied by Oliver Douglas,” he adds. The contents are then simply rolled into the machine for the wash process to begin which because it reaches a temperature of 60° C, with a rinse temperature of 80° C to ensure sanitation, the wash process is fully optimised with every cycle.
Colin Taylor also draws attention to the benefits the new Oliver Douglas Panamatic facility is producing compared with the company’s previous, custom-designed system. “Although this also achieved good results, the process was slower and required significantly more maintenance operations – both of which clearly impacted on the need to maintain production consistency and through-flow to meet our daily output demand. The use now of the Oliver Douglas system is already producing excellent results in terms of the standards of the cleaning process and our overall operational efficiency.”
Supplying an area bordered by Skegness, Liverpool and Derbyshire, Gadsby Bakery supplies some 76 Lincolnshire Co-op stores as well as 18 larger group stores and 17 Midland Co-op outlets. The organisation also supplies products for use by a number of food producers for schools in the area. The name of Gadsby has developed a reputation over 50 years as a quality baker, which clearly depends on every aspect of the manufacturing process. The installation now of the Oliver Douglas Panamatic 700 cleaning station – one of three Panamatic systems in the company’s range – is evidence of Gadsby Bakery’s commitment to achieving high volume output and both excellent baking quality and consistency throughout the 24-hours per day operation.