A West Yorkshire bakery is to supply baked items to more than 100 Marks & Spencer (M&S) stores.
Lottie Shaw’s, a third-generation family business dating back to 1913, will see its Yorkshire Parkin Biscuit Tube go on sale in 160 UK-based M&S stores.
The move comes after 60 Yorkshire-based Morrisons outlets began selling a bespoke pack of the brand’s Yorkshire Parkin cake, novelty gingerbread and baked-for-sharing flapjacks earlier this year.
Since opening its second bakery, a 12,500sq ft facility in Brighouse in 2017, the business has doubled the production of its Yorkshire Parkin – a ginger bake using flour, oatmeal, black treacle and syrup – said Charlotte Shaw (pictured right), granddaughter of the first baker to run the company.
Millionaire shortbread, rocky road, flapjacks and traybakes are also produced at the new site.
“We are extremely excited and delighted to be taking our family baking to a national level,” Shaw told British Baker. “Our online business has grown by 70% in the last year and our gifting items, such as Christmas hampers, are driving a large proportion of this growth.”
Last Christmas, 100,000 mince pies were produced at the new site compared to 80,000 the year before, Shaw added.
“This Christmas we’re planning more collaborations with local businesses, including a gin producer, so we’ll be making gin-themed mince pies and a sloe gin fruit cake.”
Earlier this year the bakery’s parkin cake was named Best Yorkshire Product in the Garbutt & Elliott 2018 Yorkshire Food Entrepreneurs Awards.
The company’s original bakery in Elland still produces traditional baked goods, including Yorkshire teacakes for local schools, sandwich huts and fish and chip shops.
No comments yet