Specialty bread manufacturer rise to success

Leading manufacturer of hand crafted specialty bread takes on 2 KTP projects to re-engineer key business processes.

La Fornaia has seen success after success over the last decade, winning prestigious awards, increasing their turnover five-fold and out growing their custom built factory. When La Fornaia broke into to the specialty bread market in had no difficulty laying claim to its market niche as demand was fierce for authentic, premium quality continental foods. In order to perfect its marketing strategy and develop its already extensive line of products, the company took on a KTP programme with London South Bank University. Prior to the KTP, the biggest account La Fornaia held was with store chain Marks and Spencers, accounting for 60% of their business. With the specialty bread market growing they increased their sales to Sainsbury’s, Safeway, Waitrose and Duchy Originals.

Project benefits were also seen at LSBU. Development of training programmes for use within the newly launched Food Centre enabled students and staff to take advantage of industry-relevant training and information. Advantages towards research have been seen in LSBUs Test Bakery Facility developed at La Fornaia, facilitating New Product Development and raw materials evaluations in undergraduate and post graduate projects.

Upon completion of their extremely successful first KTP, La Fornaia found new opportunity for development. As a result of the company’s rapid expansion, it had outgrown its old business process infrastructure. Unprecedented levels of client demand were putting new stresses on old systems which might, if left unchecked, begin to hinder production efficiency. It was decided that an audit and overhaul of the business’ key production components were needed and a second KTP project was the way to go about it.

Associate Dawn Eachus is a planning and business systems analyst who has been brought in to implement these new systems. “We need someone like Dawn because we do a lot of planning and scheduling of production to meet orders coming from our various customers, all with different collection windows. Dawn came across as someone who could bridge the gap between the front office and the factory,” comments Terry Miller, Human Resources Manager.

The projects academic supervisor Vic Lane explains, "The project is essentially to do with production development; it's about managing production volumes and managing production quality. We are helping both the company evolve and also the Associate in their career."

When asked what some of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of being involved with a KTP are, Dawn suggests, "It's very difficult when you come into a small place which has outgrown its current systems and you have got to try and get across to people that the way they are doing it now is not the best way that it could be done. When people start to see the benefits, it’s very rewarding."

Given La Fornaia's remarkable success it is unsurprising that when asked whether or not they would recommend KTP to other companies, Mr Millars reply is "Definitely and we always do, it has been very beneficial for us."