The aptly named The Bakewell Tart Shop in Derbyshire proudly proclaims to be the birthplace of the Bakewell tart – with the closely guarded original recipe still used to this day.
The exact (or even rough) date of the sweet treat’s origin remains murky. Some believe it was around 1820 while others think it may have been as late as 1860. What is broadly agreed upon is that the concept came into being after Mrs Greaves, mistress of the White Horse Inn in Bakewell, asked her cook to pour a mixture into pastry cases and then add jam, but the cook added the jam first in error resulting in the pastry, jam, frangipane concoction known and loved today.
It was this heritage amidst the beautiful surroundings which drew Duncan Kirk to the business five years ago. His career started out in the early nineties at Sainsbury’s before spending 16 years in Australia which included time at the Coles Myer Group. With experience in supply chain, buying, retail marketing, and then consulting, Kirk and his wife decided to return to the UK.
After a process involving scrubbing out areas of the map where they didn’t want to live, specifically “anywhere near her family or anywhere near my family” he laughs, they were left with the Peak District and the Lake District. With the area of search ringfenced, it was time to find a business.
“There were lots of options, but not many that had heritage and history and a strength of brand in at a price that we could afford,” he tells the audience at the UK Food & Drink Shows earlier this month. So, what drew him to The Bakewell Tart Shop? It had “lots of opportunity to grow”. “It was already a profitable business, but it wasn’t maximising its top line by any stretch of the imagination,” he adds.
“We have to recognise the history of who we are, what we stand for, and our place in the Bakewell local community”
Despite the unfortunate timing of opening the shop three days before the first lockdown in 2020, Kirk remained optimistic. He sought to understand the proposition and the customer base, which included leaning into the gifting market with all tarts now proudly declaring ‘With love from Bakewell’ on the packaging.
He also embraced the business principle of “service, quality, price – you can have two but not three”. “Our focus was on improving the service, improving the environment and justifying the price,” Kirk explains. Little things such as plants, better seating, nicer music, and an improved menu “give a different perception to the consumer and therefore justifies the price for the experience”.
All of these are particularly important when there’s stiff competition. The Bakewell Tart Shop may have the original recipe, but there are several other bakeries and Bakewell tart and pudding specialists in the town.
“It’s not difficult to replicate but you need to have a point of competition,” notes Kirk. “We have to recognise the history of who we are, what we stand for, and our place in the Bakewell local community.”
The moves are paying off. “We’ve had growth every single year,” explains Kirk, “and in the five years since we took over the business, we have more than doubled sales.”
Evolution in challenging times
That said, 2025 hasn’t started quite as positive as with sales down for the first three months of the year versus 2024. “Bakewell’s had a tough three months,” says Kirk pointing to a long winter “that seemed to go on forever”, “economic uncertainty” and a later Easter as well as some negative press about love locks being cut off a local bridge (although a new home has since been found for them).
More costs being levelled at the business in the form of rising minimum wage won’t help but The Bakewell Tart Shop is evolving its model to combat this.
“It’s clearly something that’s affecting everybody in terms of it being either the number one or the number two cost within retail hospitality business,” he explains. “We’re fundamentally changing the model to reduce the number of hours that are required to run our business rather than reduce the number of people. We think we can reduce our staff costs by about 30%. That doesn’t mean losing staff, but it does mean allowing it to evolve and not replace as the number drops.”
The business operates a retail counter and a café with around 12 to 18 employees, depending on the time of year. Currently, the café has table service, and the counter has a separate till point, but it is set to merge the two service counters as part of a refit before the summer rush.
The café offers pies, hot and cold beverages, afternoon tea, sandwiches and toasties, and sweet treats including the titular tarts and Bakewell puddings (similar to a tart but made with puff pastry rather than shortcrust). Notably, “about 45% of our entire business sales come from Bakewell tarts and Bakewell puddings but they account for about 5% of the range”.
“Fundamentally, our job is to set the prices at a price that covers the cost of offering that product for sale”
Further changes coming down the line include work to make the operation more allergen friendly through a process that will allow customers to curate the menu based on their allergens and preferences to find something to eat. This, Kirk notes, takes into consideration the differences in the allergens which are included in legislation in different nations, particularly important with the number of tourists visiting the shop, as well as those not part of the top 14.
“There are always times that gonna be challenging,” Kirk says. “We can sit and complain about increases in National Insurance contributions or minimum wage rises or price rises, or anything else. Fundamentally, our job is to set the prices at a price that covers the cost of offering that product for sale. Things change. Whether it be Covid, snowstorms, Donald Trump – you just have to cope and that means not getting stuck in your ways.
“We have to retain our tradition, but it doesn’t mean we have to retain every element of the service offering,” he adds.
So, what’s next? The rest of the year will be spent getting to grips with the forthcoming changes so the operational model is in a good state to be pushed into other local towns with four new sites on the agenda as part of the next five-year plan.
“Bakewell will always be the likely bestselling store for selling the Bakewell tarts, but it doesn’t mean we can’t replicate that in other towns around Derbyshire.”
No comments yet