Tortilla factory opens in England

VIDEO CNN's Christian Mahne reports on the expansion plans of one Mexican manufacturer Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

COVENTRY, England - Cathedrals, sheep and Shakespeare's prose we've come to expect from the United Kingdom. But tortillas?

Mexico's national flat bread is gaining ground in Europe -- so much so that Mission Foods has built a $40 million manufacturing plant in this Midlands town.

"Ten years ago, you wouldn't have found a tortilla in the supermarket," says Mission Foods spokesman Dave Johnston. Now, the plant will crank out 140,000 an hour.

But Mexico-based parent corporation Gruma, the world's No. 1 tortilla maker, has even bigger plans. It aims to add chapati, a flat, circular wheat bread made in India and Pakistan, to the menu.

When it comes to bread, Gruma's world is, indeed, flat.

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Mission Foods Foodservice

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