Welsh business the Village Bakery has secured planning permission for a new £2.3m baking academy.

Opening early next year, the four-storey, 26,000 sq ft building will be located next to the family firm’s two bakeries on the Wrexham Industrial Estate.

It will include office space and a state-of-the-art innovation centre to develop new products.

Additionally, the company is looking for 13 apprentices to “help lay the foundation for the next phase of the company’s expansion”. Ten will study Bakery Technology NVQ Level 2, while three will look at the engineering side of the business.

Robin Jones, managing director, said: “We’ve got a great track record in bringing on young apprentices who have then gone on to become supervisors and bakery managers. We prefer to grow our own, so to speak, and these new apprentices are our future; they will be the life blood of our business.”

Tom Jackson, an apprentice at the bakery, added: “I might have gone to university, but it wasn’t for me. I always did want to go for an apprenticeship, but I wasn’t sure what to go for until I saw the advert from the Village Bakery.

"I am really enjoying the apprenticeship. It is hard work, but it is very satisfying. I can look at a product and think ‘I made that’.”