Divider delivers quality and efficiency improvements for Roses the Bakers

When its ageing dough divider became unreliable, the team at Roses the Bakers began looking for an alternative, and sought the help of bakery and food production equipment specialist European Process Plant Ltd (EPP). Roses’ latest investment from EPP – a Koenig Mini Rex Futura dough dividing and rounding machine – has delivered greater consistency and accuracy, improved yield and reduced labour costs.

Roses the Bakers has been supplying the Sheffield community with delicious dietary staples since 1940. The family owned business – now in its third generation – has five retail shops in the citywide area. The Steel City bakery also supplies more than 60 wholesale businesses, including educational institutes, convenience shops, hotels, restaurants, delicatessens and cafés. The craft baker produces thousands of breadcakes (a popular term for ‘bread roll’ in Yorkshire dialect) every day, alongside an ever-expanding product range including doughnuts, cupcakes, pastries, tarts, sandwiches, speciality loaves and more.

“The divider we had kept breaking down; it was disrupting production, and there was a lot of waste, as well as inconsistencies which impact the quality of the product,” says Seuranie Johnstone, Director, Roses the Bakers, whose grandfather James Rose founded the company 80 years ago. “As we focus on quality, and we want to be here for many years to come, we thought it was the right thing to invest in the best equipment, invest in the business, and get something that we would be proud of.”

The bakery had previously purchased a MIWE oven from EPP. “We’ve built up a good relationship with EPP, and they provided great support when we bought the oven which has been fantastic, so it seemed the logical decision to use them again,”  says Mark Johnstone, General Manager, Roses the Bakers.

To ensure the divider was right for their needs, EPP encouraged Roses to try out the product on the machine EPP have available for trials at the Puratos Innovation Centre test bakery near Bicester. Roses was able to put dough though the Koenig Mini Rex using their own recipes and bake off the product to ensure they were getting the quality they wanted.  It was during this process they found that they were able to increase the water percentage in the dough, increasing yield and delivering a soft texture.

The new divider is used at Roses’ Atlas Way bakery for a couple of hours per day to create between 4,000 and 6,000 breadcakes. “The Mini Rex produces the best quality product,” adds Mark. “Having spoken to other bakers, we knew it would do the job for us. It can also produce a wide range of products from different dough piece sizes, and you can set the precise weight to the gram. With our previous divider we could only choose from two sizes. EPP also offered to arrange a trip to see an intermediate prover in Austria, which was again fantastic service. It’s great to have the option to see different setups.”

The addition of the divider has provided many benefits, reducing previously labour-intensive tasks. “We have been able to reduce the number of people working on the divider from three or four down to just one, and it is much easier to clean. The old machine used to take two people about an hour to fully clean, take it apart and dismantle, whereas the Mini Rex takes one person 20 minutes” adds Seuranie.

“There was a lot of hand moulding required with our previous setup, and a lot of splitting of dough pieces. The Mini Rex does all that, and just one person is able to handle the settings and do the traying up. We can even run our doughnuts through it – something which we couldn’t do previously. Everything comes out consistent, precise and ready-to-use straight away, which is a huge timesaver.”

“We were delighted to once again supply Roses with high quality equipment for its craft bakery,” says Michael Lomas, Technical Sales Manager, EPP. “Seeing return customers is an excellent sign for us, and it is great to be associated with such a successful and well-run bakery. Koenig is a world leading manufacturer, and we’re thrilled that Roses has been pleased with both the performance of the product from Koenig as well as our service offering which we pride ourselves on. We hope we can continue our successful relationship.”