Sandersons has won six national awards for its pies at the 2016 British Pie Awards, just three years after going into administration.

The Lancashire bakery’s accolades included best in the Vegetarian Pie category for its lentil and sweet potato pie.

The bakery opened in the 1930s, but went into administration in September 2013, before being rescued by Cheshire company Flash Sandersons later the same year.

The business now supplies pies and breads to hotels, restaurants, retailers, farm shops, hospitals, schools and local authorities nationwide.

Operations manager Allister Ogg said the awards were recognition of the hard work put in by staff. He said: “We’re really excited. The whole place is buzzing.”

He added: “The pies we submitted are the ones we already supply to our customers, so it’s not like we have put these together for the show. We submitted eight pies and received six prizes, so we must be doing something right.”

As well as winning the best vegetarian pie, Sandersons was highly commended in the same category for its spinach and mushroom pie. It also received two silver awards for its chicken and chorizo pie, and cheese and potato pie, and two bronze awards for its steak and ale pie, and game pie.

Higher standard of entries

Matthew O’Callaghan, chairman of the British Pie Awards, said: “The standard of entrants this year was higher than ever before, and Sandersons’ lentil and sweet potato pie thoroughly deserved to be awarded this [the vegetarian pie] title.”