Balancing Tradition and Automation in the Bakery Industry
Tunnock's in Glasgow produces about 7 million wafer bars and 4.5 million tea cakes annually, with caramel output around 20 tonnes per day. A dedicated 12-person team manually tests and spreads caramel in five layers to maintain traditional quality. While most of the factory is automated, certain steps such as caramel spreading and some packaging still rely on human labor. Automation is employed mainly to boost output while preserving traditional methods.
Tunnock's strives to balance tradition with automation to stay competitive against larger snack brands, using machines for speed where appropriate, and some production lines even operate at night. However, investment plans in automation are sensitive to economic conditions. The company is considering delaying a £2.5 million equipment upgrade due to volatility in cocoa prices and broader financial factors.
In bakery automation technology, a new robot arm named HIRO—developed by Unifiller, part of Coperion—can handle cake decorating tasks including topping with caramel. The robot uses Stäubli hardware and is designed with hygiene and easy disassembly in mind to suit the food production environment. Cakes on the production line vary in shape and alignment, which means robots must accommodate imperfect centering and slight dimensional differences, presenting engineering challenges.
Meanwhile, The Bread Factory in London (Gail's) bakes up to 40,000 sourdough loaves daily using 16 tonnes of flour. Machines mix and portion dough, while skilled bakers shape loaves and monitor recipe tweaks manually. Industry expert Craig Le Clair from Forrester advocates a hybrid automation model that preserves the 'soul' of handcrafted products by limiting automation to areas that benefit from consistency, speed, and volume, thereby maintaining the artisanal character of bakery goods while ensuring efficiency.
