Bakery business celebrates 80th anniversary with rise in orders
A YORKSHIRE bakery business is celebrating its 80th year with rising orders for the likes of John Lewis and Asda as well as sandwich shops, secondary schools and London cafes.
Barnsley-based White’s Bakery manufactures cakes, cookies and bread products for wholesale and retail customers.
The fourth generation business has seen a steep increase in orders in the last four years and now has a turnover of £2.6m and employs 56 people at its Worsbrough Bridge bakery and four South Yorkshire shops.
Managing director David White said: “We’ve had four straight years of growth, following the quieter years of recession, and what we’d like to do now is expand our customer base further. We have the capacity to expand so we are stepping up our marketing drive.”
Whites’ business growth strategy is being supported by Enterprising Barnsley, a European-funded programme delivered by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.
The family bakery business was established in 1934 by David’s grandparents Albert and Elsie White. His dad and uncle, Jack and Colin, then joined the company and David took over as managing director in 1996.
Recent new orders include a contract to design and bake Victorian gingerbread figures – gentlemen and ladies – to celebrate John Lewis’ 150th anniversary. This is not the first time White’s has baked for the department store as they also produced The Bear and the Hare decorated biscuits which accompanied John Lewis’ huge Christmas campaign in 2013.
Another order will see more than 200,000 Madeira cakes baked by White’s on the shelves of Asda stores in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the run up to Christmas this year.
Fairtrade cookies – made from ethically-sourced ingredients including chocolate, spices, raisins and sugar – are an increasingly significant product for White’s. Sales of these premium cookies have quadrupled in the last two years. Most of the cookies are delivered to London’s universities, colleges and coffee shops again via a large wholesale supplier.
Whites’ customers also include a growing number of schools across Yorkshire and the East Midlands, to which the business delivers flapjacks, cookies and shortbreads.
Whites also delivers bread and confectionery direct to small grocers, sandwich shops and chip shops as well its own four retail outlets in Worsbrough, Darfield, Conisbrough and Barnsley market.
Whites’ bakers is also currently developing a mini Eccles cake for a catering company which supplies big name airlines like Emirates.
Enterprising Barnsley is supporting White’s with specialist coaching to develop robust sales and marketing techniques and improved IT systems.
Enterprising Barnsley business development manager Shaun Higginbottom said: “This is an exciting time for White’s Bakery as it puts fresh impetus into its drive to seek new customers and explore new markets.
“White’s is a perfect example of a family firm which understands the value of its heritage but looks to the future too. We look forward to seeing the business expand and in the next few years, building on its first 80 years.”
Enterprising Barnsley is supported financially by the European Union and has attracted £2,259,511 investment from the European Regional Development Fund as part of Europe’s support for the region’s economic development, through the Yorkshire and Humber ERDF Programme.
