A businessman whose two daughters suffer with severe nut allergies has opened a specialist nut-free bakery in Oakdale.
Fed up with not being able to buy his two children birthday cakes with a guarantee of no nuts, former Avana Bakeries and Memory Lane Cakes managing director Mike Woods decided to set up The Just Love Food Company.
Mr Woods said: “Since my children were diagnosed with severe nut allergies in 2001, I have struggled to find suitable food products on the market dedicated to nut allergy sufferers.
“My wife and I found it particularly difficult when it came to sourcing birthday cakes as all supermarket birthday cakes carry warnings that make the products ‘not suitable for nut allergy sufferers’.
“Faced with this ongoing battle and equipped with over 20 years experience in the food industry, I decided last year that it was time to put it right. The Just Love Food Company has been set up to provide a food solution to nut allergy sufferers.”
With £150,000 backing from NatWest bank and £250,000 from Finance Wales, Mr Woods secured a 12,500 sq ft unit at Oakdale Business Park.
Councillor Ron Davies, Caerphilly County Borough Council’s cabinet member for regeneration said: “We are delighted that Mike has selected one of our units at Oakdale Business Park as this is yet another success story for the site which has gone from strength to strength over recent years.
“It is unusual for a start-up company to take such a large premises, but this shows Mike has ambition and we will work with him to offer as much support as possible as his venture gets off the ground.”
Mr Woods added: “We searched the breadth of Wales to find a suitable venue for our factory. One of our key requirements was securing a site that had never handled nuts. While we looked at some factories that were already kitted out for our requirements, we couldn’t guarantee that these sites had never handled nuts, so we decided to go for a unit that was only five years old and had previously been used for storage of non-food items.
“The unit is currently being kitted out with new state-of-the-art equipment and in keeping with our nut-safe promise it’s not just our recipes that have no nuts, our staff, visitors and suppliers will not be permitted to bring nuts on site.”
Production at the site should begin later this month.
Martyn Bale, senior relationship manager at NatWest, said: “The Just Love Food Company is the result of great vision and forward thinking and the funding we have provided will enable the company to take advantage of its entry into the market and expand in line with their future growth plans.”
Neil Maguinness, portfolio manager at Finance Wales, said: “We’re pleased to be investing in The Just Love Food Company which has identified a niche in a growth area of the food market.
For more information about Just Love Food Company visit www.justlovefoodcompany.com