Hot cross buns may not be as popular as the chocolate eggs and treats we exchange at Easter, but they are a symbol of religious significance.

These sweet spiced buns, bearing the cross as a symbol of the crucifixion, are traditionally eaten on Good Friday.

But Sean Corrigan is part of a bakery team which is responsible for producing hundreds and thousands of them from February to Easter and beyond.

Sean’s role as supervisor in Greggs’ Leeds bakery involves overseeing the team involved in the creation of quality products, but with so many buns to cross at this time of year, he’s lending a hand.

Over the past six weeks, Sean has crossed hundreds of thousands of buns. On average his team is crossing 4,000 a day!

It’s a simple procedure, operating a pump containing the crossing mixture. The tricky part is achieving a neatly centred cross. Practise makes perfect and, with 250,000 buns to cross for retailing at Greggs’ 155 Yorkshire shops – including the kiosk in Bradford’s Kirkgate shopping centre – it’s no wonder Sean and his team have got the operation down to a fine art.

“It tends to be 4,000 a day, but on Easter week we can be doing between 12,000 and 20,000!” says Sean, from Pudsey.

I question whether all this crossing affects his eyesight? He tells me he takes regular breaks to keep his eyes on the job and to relieve his aching wrist from operating the pump lever.

“I tend to do an hour, then walk away for a few minutes to give my arm a rest,” says Sean.

Far from being bored of crossing buns, Sean says he finds it rather therapeutic as it takes his mind off other things.

By the time Easter arrives, I suspect he’s fed up of them, but far from it. “They are lovely toasted,” he says.

But hot cross buns can’t beat his favourite confectionery, lemon muffins, which are a new addition to Greggs’ range.

Sean came to Greggs, one of the UK’s leading sandwich shops and bakery retailers, 15 years ago as an operative. Before that, he spent a decade helping produce milk cartons with the Co-op Dairy.

“I have been in the food industry since I left school. I have always had an interest in the workings of a factory. I love it. It’s interesting meeting different people,” he says.

When Sean arrived at Greggs, he learned on the job, working in various departments. Creating everything from bread rolls to gingerbread men expanded his knowledge of the vast range of products the bakery produces.

Sean also worked in the company’s dispatch department, preparing deliveries for sale in the bakery’s shops.

He was promoted to team leader then, 18 months ago, to supervisor, which entails running the department, ensuring orders are completed on time and that the products are of the highest quality.

He says his team at the Leeds bakery are renowned for the quality of their hot cross buns.

“Within the Yorkshire group, we have been voted the best hot cross buns in the company – and that’s not just because I am doing them,” he says.

Sean says qualities candidates need to work in a bakery are a good eye for quality and a lot of patience.

His greatest job satisfaction is creating quality products for people. “I enjoy my job, and enjoy going home on a night knowing the production has gone well and there are quality things for people to buy.”

For more information about courses or a career in the bakery industry, contact Thomas Danby College in Leeds on 0800 0962319.