Aryzta doubles down on “premium” sourdough and specialty bread capacity

19 Apr 2022 --- Arytza has installed a new manufacturing plant in Dublin to double its sourdough production and other specialty breads for UK and Ireland customers.

“This expansion is an important step on the Aryzta journey to premiumize our bread range. The extra capacity will enable us to maximize consumer demand for breads with high nutritional value, fiber, seeds, grains and sourdough,” says Anthony Proctor, managing director, Aryzta Ireland & UK.

The company’s Ireland manufacturing plant uses a 30-year-old perpetual live starter dough. Regenerated daily, it creates a unique and distinctive premium flavor, according to Aryzta.

The expansion will also allow Arytza to develop new products to meet the “ever more complex tastes of consumers” who demand higher quality products.

Expansion for AryztaArytza's bread manufacturing line in their Dublin plant (Credits: Aryzta).
The expansion plans for Aryzta come after the initial 2020 investment in French bread manufacturing in Dublin. Following on the company’s “next-generation stress-free French bread” strategic plan. 

Earlier this year, the baking company also doubled the capacity of its Malaysian bread plant. In South East Asia, Aryzta expects a 7% to 8% CAGR in the bakery demand. Using its Malaysia plant as a base to expand and export to other Asian markets.

“We are expanding in the growing Asian bakery market, strengthening our relevant position in foodservice and QSR in this region. Our work on inflation price recovery is on track while focusing on disciplined cost management to deliver improved performance,” says Jordi Urs, Chair and interim CEO of Aryzta.

Sourdough a digestible rising trend
With the pandemic, the demand for sourdough bread reached new highs with consumers seeking healthier diets and the boom of home baking, which was sparked during the initial lockdowns and home-working periods just after COVID-19. This kind of bread also improves digestibility, as sourdough bread has already started a part of the digestive process.

Research from Gobbetti, dean, Faculty of Science and Technology at the Free University of Bolzano and Karl Desmedt, Puratos sourdough librarian, indicated the easier-to-digest nature of sourdough bread due to the longer fermentation process.

“We demonstrated that the emission of gas during digestion, the transit of the bread in our intestinal tract and the absorption of nutrition, like free amino acids, made sourdough bread more digestible than all the other types of bread,” says Desmedt.

By Marc Cervera