Finsbury Food Group’s foodservice arm has invested more than £1 million in a new doughball production plant at its Manchester site.

The new plant is expected to increase the site’s capacity by 30%. The investment was also used to increase freezer capacity.

As well as bolstering capacity, the Group said that the changes will reduce downtime and product wastage.

“With much of Kara’s customer base closing during the lockdown, the past few months have been a challenging period both for Kara and the Finsbury Food Group,” said Jon Cooper, Business Unit Director at Finsbury Food Group.

“It did, however, provide us with the perfect time to completely install and commission the new plant.

“This new installation protects and significantly increases our manufacturing capacity and importantly brings about less manual handling. We have already seen improved product quality and consistency.”

He added: “This investment has come at an important time. Doughballs have been identified as an increasingly important range within our product portfolio.

“We know that many foodservice operators and wholesalers are looking at menu shrinkage and switching to ingredients that offer multi-use.

“Our doughballs are sufficiently versatile to be used across all day parts and in a cross-section of dishes and cuisine types.”