Award-winning Cardiff-based Pettigrew Bakeries is set to open a brand-new headquarters and bakery café in Penylan in June.
Affectionately dubbed the ‘Breadquarters’, the new space marks the business’ biggest investment to date and will see all of the bakery’s production move under one roof.
Based at the Design Quarter on Colchester Avenue, the 5,500 sq ft space will allow Pettigrew Bakeries to significantly increase capacity, create 10 new jobs, streamline day-to-day operations and create a new customer-facing bakery café with a theatre-style window into the heart of the bakery. The site will also help support future wholesale growth.
At present, the firm operates four retail sites across Cardiff – Victoria Park, Roath Garage, Castle Arcade and Rhiwbina High Street which was opened just last year – alongside a weekly presence at all three Cardiff Farmers Markets. Until now, production has been split across two separate bakery spaces with Victoria Park specialising in patisserie and lamination while Roath is focused on bread – a model the team says has become increasingly complex and restrictive as demand has grown.
David Le Masurier, founder of Pettigrew Bakeries which was named Craft Bakery Business of the Year at the 2024 Baking Industry Awards, said the firm has “outgrown every inch of space we own” making this the “logical next step” for its operations.
“For ten years, we have relentlessly focused on our craft, putting consistency above everything else and incrementally improving what we do in response to what our customers tell us they love. Growth for us now is a necessity. It solves overly complicated daily operations, but it also gives us the room to be more creative and ambitious about what Pettigrew Bakeries can become.”
Le Masurier added that although the bakery is investing in new technology that will help it bake on a larger scale, “Pettigrew is still about highly skilled professional bakers, hand-producing bread, pastries and more, seven days a week, 363 days of the year”.
“The difference,” he added, “is that this new space will allow our bakers to spend more time baking, and less time carrying things up and down stairs or in and out of provers.”
Over the coming months, the team will be fitting out the site while continuing to operate all existing shops and market pitches as normal. Pettigrew plans to document the behind-the-scenes process across its social media channels, giving customers a look at both the highs and lows of bringing a major artisan bakery space to life.
As part of the next phase of the business, both the Victoria Park and Roath sites will also receive their own makeovers.
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