McDonald’s and bun supplier Guenther open new £38m bakery site

McDonald’s UK & Ireland and Guenther Bakeries UK have opened a new bakery in Coventry after a £38m investment.

The new site, which will create buns exclusively for McDonald’s burgers, includes a £20m investment in “cutting-edge technology”.

The new bakery, which bakes up to 1.1 million buns a day, has new measures in place with the aim of making it more sustainable, such as the installation of a heat recovery system. Heat captured from the ovens is reused to generate steam to prove the dough and heat water for washing equipment.

A long-standing partner of McDonald’s, Guenther has supplied its restaurants with buns for almost 20 years, both in the UK, in the Irish market and globally.

All buns baked at the site are used as key components for some of McDonald’s most well-known menu items, including the Big Mac and Quarter Pounder.

The new bakery in Coventry is the company’s sixth European site and will create up to 90 jobs, with 85% of the staff recruited for the site living locally.

Dale Tremblay, global president and CEO at Guenther said the bakery has been supplying buns to McDonald’s restaurants since 2005 with the opening “mark[ing] our continued commitment to delivering this service”.

He added: “We’re incredibly proud to be bringing such significant investment to Coventry, and to be opening a bakery that boasts one of the fastest production lines in the whole of Europe.”

Beth Hart, vice president, supply chain at McDonald’s UK & Ireland, said the new parntership “will help us to better serve our customers with quality buns for their favourite burgers".

“At McDonald’s, we’re proud of the longstanding relationships we have with our suppliers like Guenther Bakeries and investing in innovation like the new site in Coventry is an excellent example of the exciting work we’re achieving together.”