A Q&A with Warren's Bakery

Established in 1860 and recognised as the world’s-oldest Cornish pasty maker, Warrens Bakery is branching out into franchising, with its sights set on territories in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Birmingham, Hampshire, London, Cheshire and Essex. Chairman Mark Sullivan explains why the brand is flourishing. 

“With the weight of heritage the Warrens Bakery brings, we put a firm focus on provenance and generations of bakers have passed down craft bakery techniques and traditions, which have led to a series of accolades and prestigious awards. As the Great British Bake Off is going into its ninth year during 2018, the love of British craft bakery continues to grow. We introduce new and varied seasonal lines constantly and our luxury traditional Christmas pudding was awarded ‘Tastiest High Street Christmas Pudding’ by Country Life Magazine, beating stiff competition from 14 other finalists, including Harrods. 

“To capitalise on our growing popularity, we have been deftly expanding our franchise activities outside of the South West since the end of 2016, and within the first 12 months we had opened 11 new franchise stores with a further 330 stores contracted to open within the next five years. With a rich heritage and an array of award-winning sweet and savoury bakes, the team had a busy year and were celebrating being shortlisted as one of the top three craft bakery businesses in the country at the Baking Industry Awards 2017.

“With the rise in popularity of craft baking, the premium bakery puts a firm focus on provenance, and is recognised as the oldest Cornish pasty maker in the world, an accolade the expert team is proud to uphold. We aim to be the leading ethical franchisor in retail bakery. There’s a lack of choice in the UK for consumers and franchisees, with a gap for a national premium bakery. With our unique heritage and provenance, we address this.

“Our model provides franchisees with a national supply, economies of scale and operational staff training. We offer a versatile opportunity, product development, point of sale merchandising with in-house marketing support. In fact, with the investment comes £5,000 of opening marketing and PR, all initial training and support, food safety and health and safety courses, operations manual, site design and project management, opening point of sale and marketing materials.”