The Bath & West Rural Enterprise Centre’s New Development Kitchen Officially Open

News
15/06/2018

The Royal Bath & West of England Society is delighted to announce the completion of its new Development Kitchen, which was officially opened last week at the 155th Royal Bath & West Show by the Society President, Mary Prior CVO MBE.


Part funded by the Heart of Wessex Local Action Group, the facility is set to be a hub for food & drink businesses to use for product development, small-scale manufacturing, training and catering. It aims to provide small food & drink businesses the opportunity to grow and increase productivity, without the need to invest in purpose built premises.


The highly-spec’d 3-phase powered kitchen has more than 8m² of worktop preparation area and offers an extensive range of catering equipment which includes a six-hob burner oven, griddle and fryer with an additional combination oven and a fast-multi-cycle dishwasher. There are two refrigeration units and a freezer unit to provide flexible working for users of the kitchen.


The Development Kitchen project is the last piece of the Society’s new Rural Enterprise Centre jigsaw, part of a £550k transformation of the Society’s old offices. Education, knowledge transfer and business growth is at the heart of the centre, and the facility will provide the perfect venue for farmers undertaking knowledge transfer projects, higher education graduates undertaking research projects, further education students gaining farming knowledge and skills, rural workforce gaining vocational skills to increase their employability and micro food and drink businesses looking to expand and grow.


Rupert Cox CEO of the Royal Bath & West of England Society said

"This new development kitchen completes our plans to create a business hub for food and other rural business. The centre hosts workshops, professional courses and networking events to support small businesses, as well as conferences for up to a hundred people with catering provided through the new kitchen”.