Awards sponsor says theme could well be a recipe for success

The Milton Keynes Business Achievement Awards 2025 take place in March at Stadium MK and for the third year will welcome back Brioche Pasquier Ltd as one of the headline sponsors.

Brioche Pasquier is a multi-national company but it all hails from a small village in the west of France, way back in 1936. Gabriel Pasquier was the baker of the village and was renowned for his brioche, pâtisserie and bread. His five sons took over the business after his passing and continued making the traditional French brioche but to add a wrapper and sell the products into supermarkets. This was a revolutionary idea for the time and the rest, as they say, is history.

Brioche Pasquier remains a family-owned and run business. The company has expanded hugely over the years moving into other European markets and even America. In 2014, its first UK factory was built in Milton Keynes. Its Pitch products are now recognisable on most supermarket shelves and are a firm family favourite.

Ryan Peters, Managing & Industrial Director at Brioche Pasquier UK Ltd, spoke about the company’s continued support for the awards and about how the theme of Bridging The Gap: Skills & Learning for Our Future Workforce resonates with it, as it strives to find the right skills for its operational needs.

This is your third year as a headline sponsor of the Milton Keynes Business Achievement Awards in 2025, what encouraged Brioche Pasquier to return this year?

We have enjoyed supporting what is the most prestigious awards ceremony in MK over the last few years. Each year the theme has resonated with us, our beliefs, and our values. This year is no different and in fact the theme is again a huge part of what we try to do with our own people, so to be able to be headline sponsor again is really something we are proud to do.

This year’s theme is Bridging the Gap: Skills & Learning for Our Future Workforce – is this an issue you have been affected by at Brioche Pasquier when trying to fill vacancies?

For sure. It is difficult to find the right skills for every role we have within the business, whether it is an operator we are asking to bake and care for the product, an automation engineer who can develop programmes and improve machines and efficiencies or a marketeer strategising on how to grow and develop our brand. Our way of working is unique and with a lot of bespoke and complex processes in place we try to focus on attitude and behaviour skills and then work on improving the skills and knowledge of each individual using our own ‘savior faire’ (know how) that we have developed over the last 50 years.

Within your business the skills required are varied – do you see a gap in the skills market locally and what are your thoughts on attracting future talent, do you see an issue in any specific business area?

We do struggle a little bit with the right type of automation skill set, as we are developing our own programmes and software in house, so it is not the easiest role to fill. Also, regarding what we call networks, which is linked to all the systems around the site run by air, liquids, gases etc… Both roles are quite specialist and some of the more generic engineering courses that are available skate across the depth we require on both topics. Again, we know we are unique and will have to invest a lot of training time with the right people. They are out there for certain, and we are working with lots of local educators today so hopefully in the future we can help tailor some of the courses to suit our needs more specifically.

It’s clear that the business and educational sectors need to have a strong working relationship to help produce the pool of talent required to help the city grow, can you share any experience of partnering with educational providers? We have had some great success with apprenticeships from MK College and we have expanded and continued that this year, predominantly in engineering – from mechanical engineering to design – we also have an IT apprentice. We have had around 200 students from local schools visit us this year for tours, talks and activities, to showcase what we do, who we are and how we, alongside the schools, can help them find a good sustainable career, right here in MK. This is something I drive each year, for my managers and their teams to host and visit the local schools and colleges and to work together to help develop the future workforce.

With big expansion plans in the UK, we will continue to do this as we need to find the next automation leaders, the next bakers, the next logistics team, the next production managers and even the next directors… everything is possible, if we work together.