National Bakery eyes summer 2027 for opening of bread plant in Montego Bay

National Bakery is aiming to have its new bread plant in Montego Bay, St James, up and running by summer next year, and should commence some activities in time for next Easter.

Craig Hendrickson, who takes over leadership of the company from his father to coincide with its 75th anniversary, said his main focus is to complete the new state-of-the-art facility located at Catherine Hall.

“We should start shipping most of the new equipment before the end of the year...it will be automated [so that] some of the older ways of doing things using manual labour do not need to be done that way, so we can use some of that expertise in different areas,” Hendrickson told the Financial Gleaner.

He made the comment shortly after being announced as the new head of the country's largest baking enterprise at a function at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on Tuesday.

Hendrickson said the completion of the new facility was set back because of Hurricane Melissa, which devastated the island a year ago.

He succeeds his father, Gary ‘Butch’ Hendrickson, as the executive head of National Bakery, home of the National, HTB, HoMade and Crave brands.

The company, headquartered on Half-Way-Tree Road in St Andrew, has more than 1,000 employees and a fleet of 250 vehicles.

Hendrickson represents the fourth generation of his family in the baking industry, with National Bakery having roots in Magotty, St Elizabeth, dating back to the early 1920s.

The new leader was unable to state by how much the staff complement would change after the opening of the Montego Bay facility, as it would focus on making bread for now, unlike the Kingston facility, which has plants for bread, buns, biscuits and snacks.

He said that the investment was in the region of $5 billion.

Hendrickson said exports of National products continue to grow each year, although exports made up less than 10 per cent of its revenue.

“We have our own warehouses in England and in New York, then everywhere else we have distributors with whom we have handshake agreements to distribute all our products across Canada and the US…exports is something we just look to every year and make sure that we send out as good a product as we can to the customers,” he said.

Meanwhile, Butch Hendrickson, in handing over the leadership of the business to Craig, thanked his staff, customers and the Jamaican people for their faith and support.

He said Craig has worked in different areas of the company since 2014.

“Craig has his own ideas and approach to leadership, and that is how it should be,” Butch Hendrickson said.

Butch Hendrickson, who succeeded his father, Karl, in the mid-1990s, has overseen a period of significant growth and modernisation at the company, including continued investment in manufacturing technology and capacity, expansion of its distribution network and export footprint, and the development of initiatives supporting education, entrepreneurship and Jamaican manufacturing.

luke.douglas@gleanerjm.com

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