CHEESE-filled crust pizza was the 1,000,000th product to travel along a conveyor belt in Bolton-based Stateside Foods -- the UK's leading pizza manufacturers. Stateside's business has boomed, so much so, they asked Gloucestershire-based CKF Systems to design a conveyor system to speed up the lines and maximise available production area in the bakery make-up section. Stateside Foods production director, Steve Jones said: "CKF were by no means the cheapest option.

"We were impressed by their prompt response to our inquiry and the amount of time they invested in site visits to gain a full understanding of what we required.

"The resulting system meets our needs and saved the expense of having to relocate the bakery to larger premises."

Managing director of CKF Systems, Bryan Wheeler said: "Our considerable experience within the food manufacturing industry means that we can work closely with customers to develop cost effective and innovative materials and handling solutions." As a nation, the UK now eats more pizzas than any other country in the world.

Stateside was one of the first British food manufacturing companies to introduce cheese-filled crust to the domestic retail market.

It now produces own-brand chilled and frozen pizzas for most of the leading supermarket chains in addition to producing a wide range of Stateside label pizzas.

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