PROJECT OVERVIEW
- Customer: Coghlan’s Bakery, Dublin, Irsko
- Supplied technology: Thermal oil deck oven THERMOSTAR 35/8, system MULTICONTROL, loading machine ASISTENT COM, AS-02, AS Lift
- Project objective: Increased production capacity, improved reliability and maximum quality
From a small bakery to 50,000 loaves and baguettes a week
Coghlan’s Bakery started as a small retail bakery in Dublin. Today, the family business is run by the second generation and supplies premium artisan baked goods to its customers from a central production facility in Kildare.
Sourdough loaves, French baguettes, burger buns and pastries. Fresh and frozen. Sourdough and baguettes alone now account for approximately 50,000 units a week.
Yet the bakery has retained the character it was built on. Its range includes organic baked goods, sustainability remains an important part of the business, and its products have repeatedly been recognised at Ireland’s Blas na hÉireann food awards in recent years.
But with growth came a question almost every successful bakery eventually faces: How do we produce more without letting higher volumes dictate the way we bake?
For Coghlan’s, that question had become increasingly urgent.
When the oven sets the pace for the entire bakery
Thermal oil baking was nothing new to Coghlan’s. Before installing the Kornfeil line, the bakery was using two six-deck thermal oil ovens from another manufacturer – twelve decks in total – with a daily capacity of approximately 9,000 units.
The problem wasn’t the baking principle or the technology itself. Quite the opposite. The limitations became apparent in the realities of day-to-day production.
The previous system offered automatic oven loading, but unloading had to be done manually. With the combination of baking times and the time required to unload each batch, two of the twelve decks could not be used efficiently in practice. So while the bakery had twelve decks on paper, it wasn’t able to get the performance from them that their number might suggest.
Over time, repeated maintenance issues and downtime added another challenge. Coghlan’s estimates that it spent approximately €50,000 on spare parts alone over the previous several years. And every unplanned shutdown brought costs that are much harder to see on a maintenance spreadsheet: pressure on the team, changes to production schedules and uncertainty over whether orders could be completed on time.
So Coghlan’s defined two straightforward objectives for its new investment: more capacity and more reliable production.
A bigger oven? That wasn’t the answer
If twelve decks aren’t enough, the obvious answer might seem to be even more decks.
In Kildare, the opposite proved true.
The new Kornfeil THERMOSTAR thermal oil oven has just eight decks. The difference lies in how efficiently the bakery can use those eight decks throughout the production day.
The first change is in product handling. By combining the feeding table, ASISTENT COM automatic loading system and takeaway equipment, the new line automates both oven loading and unloading. While the oven is baking, the operators can prepare the next batch instead of waiting to unload individual decks manually.
The second change happens inside the oven, but its impact is very practical. THERMOSTAR’s eight decks are divided into two independent temperature circuits, which can operate at different temperatures.
This means the baker doesn’t have to organise the entire production schedule around a single product and a single temperature. One section of the oven can finish one product while the other operates at a different temperature for another.
In a bakery switching between different sourdoughs, baguettes and other products throughout the day, that flexibility has a direct impact on how much work the oven can actually handle.
But it’s not only about how much you can bake
Capacity was one of the main reasons for the investment. But for a bakery built around premium artisan products, capacity cannot be the only measure of success.
First and foremost, a new oven has to bake well. Coghlan’s now uses THERMOSTAR for several types of sourdough – including white, rye and ancient-grain breads – as well as French baguettes.
After the first month, Cian Coghlan rates the baking performance very highly. He points to consistent heat and repeatable results from the oven, but also to a visible improvement in the products themselves.
“The quality of the bake is excellent. There is a big improvement versus the previous oven, e.g. better burst on the sourdough. The bake is 100% consistent from the oven perspective.” Cian Coghlan, Coghlan’s Bakery
And that gets to the heart of the investment. Increasing a bakery’s output only makes sense if the customer still gets the bread they expect.
The new oven opened the door to new products too
The difference isn’t limited to Coghlan’s existing range. The bakery is also using the new line for new product development, including trials with smaller rolls. It may sound like a detail, but for the bakery it creates another production opportunity.
The previous loading equipment struggled with smaller products. As a result, Coghlan’s could not effectively test, let alone produce, these products on its deck oven.
For a bakery, flexibility isn’t simply a technical specification. It is the freedom to decide a year from now to bake something that isn’t even in the range today.
What changed after the first month?
The first operating data from Coghlan’s make the difference fairly clear.
40% MORE CAPACITY
The previous setup had twelve decks. The new THERMOSTAR has eight. Yet after the first month, Coghlan’s reports a 40% increase in production capacity. It is not simply the number of decks that matters, but how efficiently the bakery can use them throughout the production day.
SIX FEWER BAKING HOUR A DAY
The previous ovens operated 24 hours a day. With the new line, baking runs from 11 p.m. to 3 p.m. – 18 hours a day.
The bakery is therefore able to get more production capacity without having to keep the baking operation running around the clock.
55% LESS WASTE
After the first month, Coghlan’s also reports a 55% reduction in waste. One issue with the previous equipment was product damage during handling – bread could, for example, be squashed by the loading system. Reducing waste is therefore more than an efficiency figure. It means more of what the bakery produces can actually be sold.
THE FIRST MONTH WITHOUT DOWNTIME
During its first month in operation, the bakery experienced no maintenance issues or downtime with the new line.
A few weeks are, of course, far too short a period to assess long-term reliability. But reliability was one of the main reasons behind the investment, and it will remain an important measure for Coghlan’s in the months and years ahead.
CHANGE IN LABOUT ORGANIZATION
The impact on the way people work is equally interesting. The new technology did not simply remove someone from production. The employee who previously worked on the third shift was redeployed across the two remaining baking shifts, giving those shifts an additional operator.
The difference is elsewhere: production no longer has to be stretched across the full 24 hours. That distinction matters. Automation in a bakery does not always have to start with the question: “How many people can we save?” An equally relevant question can be: “How can we make better use of the people we already have?”
Eight versus twelve
The Coghlan’s Bakery story shows why choosing a new oven cannot be reduced to comparing the number of decks, baking area or theoretical capacity.
What matters is what happens during a real production day. How quickly can the team prepare the next batch? How much time is spent loading and unloading the oven? Can different products be baked at the same time? How much product is lost or damaged during production? And how many hours does the oven need to run every day for the bakery to hit its targets? At Coghlan’s, the answers produced a perhaps surprising result.
Twelve decks became eight. Capacity still increased by 40%. Daily baking time fell by six hours. Waste dropped by 55%. And for the bakery owner, the most important thing remains what ultimately comes out of the oven – the quality of the bread itself.