Warrens Bakery has teamed up with Great British Bake Off star Martha Collison as it opens its first-ever stores in London. 

The partnership with Bake Off’s youngest-ever star, who appeared in the fifth series of the show, will see the craft bakery produce a series of videos and recipes with Collison to ‘Uncover the craft in British baking’. This will include a behind-the-scenes trip to Warrens’ main production facility in St Just.

Meanwhile, Warrens has opened one site in London with two more to follow next month and in January as part of an expansion drive. The Devonshire Row store opened on 15 November, with a soft launch for New Street Square on 6 December followed by Leadenhall Market early next year.

The stores will stock Warrens bread, hand-crimped pasties, sausage rolls, scones, cakes and sandwiches. NPD has been a core focus for the brand this year, with new additions to the range including vegan, gluten-free and roast dinner pasties.

“I think there is still plenty of room for brilliant, traditional British bakeries in London, which is why I’m so excited to see Warrens Bakery launch its first London store,” said Collison.

“Britain is wonderfully multicultural, bringing the possibilities to try bakes from across the globe, but holding on to British bakes and bakeries is so important.”

With 60 bakeries across Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, Essex and Hampshire, the London stores are being used as a ‘launch-pad’ for expansion in the capital with more openings in the pipeline, according to Warrens.

Warrens Bakery chairman Mark Sullivan has targeted 1,000 stores throughout the UK over the next few years.

“We are well known by tourists who visit the West Country, many of whom have asked us to open up near them. Now, with our expansion drive, we are doing just that,” he said. “London is a very special part of this journey; it’s symbolic. By establishing stores at the heart of the capital, we’re showing that we are serious about taking affordable craft bakery to the nation.”