8 months ago
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The success of the Shorty bread line has prompted baking company Honey Bun to invest a billion dollars in its expansion.
A new production facility is to be set up at the MJS Industrial Park at Angels, St Catherine, to facilitate the growth plans. The automated facility should be up and running within seven to 10 months.
CEO Michelle Chong says Honey Bun wants to double production, and double its sales revenue alongside it. The new capacity will allow the company to keep up with demand for its products that at times has gone unmet, she said.
“We have to meet our market demand because there is a big opportunity there. Right now, we can’t distribute everywhere because we just don’t have the capacity. We could not advertise as much as we’d like to for the very same reason,” Chong said, adding that the expanded capacity will allow the company to get into exports and properly cover the present market.
Honey Bun 1982 Limited signed the agreement for the new space last Wednesday, becoming the latest company in the now fully tenanted 320,000-square-foot industrial complex that already houses two large BPO facilities in addition to other businesses.
The long-term lease agreement between MJS and Honey Bun covers 160,000 square feet of land space. Initially, the operation will be housed in a 60,000-square-foot building, while the rest of the land will be utilised over time as the company builds out its operations at the Angels complex.
Honey Bun is headquartered in Kingston. But it has long outgrown its Retirement Crescent headquarters. The last expansion took place in 2018, when one of the company’s production lines was split in two to take advantage of an additional 10,000 square feet of space that was created. Soon after, the company came to market with the Shorty line that sold bread in small packages. The products were a hit. Mega competitors like National Baking Company have also come to market with Short Week, and Yummy Bakery with Yummy Likkle Bread to take advantage of the convenience packaging.
For competitive reasons, Chong declined to comment on what products will be made at the new location. The company mainly produces a range of pastries under the Honey Bun and other brands.
“We’re putting in additional machinery; we’re automating one of our lines so that we can increase our capacity,” Chong told the Financial Gleaner, adding that the company will be relocating the personnel who presently operate the line at the Retirement Road facility to the new operation at Angels.
Honey Bun’s expansion programme has otherwise included setting up distribution outlets in several major towns in the parishes of St Thomas, Kingston and St James, presently numbering 12.
“The outlets serve the dual purpose of catering to walk-in customers, while also acting as a hub for distribution to large supermarkets and areas deeper into the country,” Chong said.
In a release, the company said the Retirement Crescent facility will continue to supply Kingston and St Andrew, St Thomas, Portland and St Mary; while the new Angels facility will service the rest of the island.
Coming off a record financial year ended September 2023, in which Honey Bun grossed revenues of $3.41 billion and made a profit of $232 million, the company followed up with a 25 per cent gain in profit to $86.5 million in the first quarter ended December 2023, off revenue of $941 million.
English (US) ·