Retail chain Cornish Bakehouse is to open new stores this year as part of its ambition for national expansion.
The business, which was founded in St Ives in 1983, unveiled its latest site in Brighton this week. This brings its estate back up to 19 following the closure of an underperforming shop in Dartmouth last year.
Cornish Bakehouse has already been extending beyond its southwestern stronghold, with outlets in Bath, Swindon, and Worcester as well as into Wales in Cardiff and Tenby. In November 2024, it opened a location over in Norwich.
Another new store in Bude, Cornwall, is launching before Easter with “some in the pipeline for the back end of the year”, according to general manager Kevin Mitchell.
“We are currently looking across the south of England and Wales with the exception of London, and we have made enquiries further north as well,” he commented. “There’s a lot of bakehouses and pasty shops when you go down south-west, but there’s not many that are wanting to venture further north and move into unfamiliar territory.”
Cornish Bakehouse is aiming to open “probably four or five shops a year, but that will accelerate if we are successful”, revealed Mitchell, adding that the company’s production site in Cornwall has the capacity headroom to support this growth.
Mitchell was appointed GM at Cornish Bakehouse in October 2023 to help lead the next stage of business growth, around a year and a half after it had been acquired by Havant-based Bridgewater Brothers Holdings. He has extensive experience in retail operations having started his career at Sainsbury’s and progressing to take on roles of regional or area manager at Netto UK, Asda, and B&M.
Unaudited accounts for the year ended 30 September 2024 reported a “satisfactory” performance by Cornish Bakehouse, with profit of £1m and turnover of £9.3m both down on the £1.4m and £9.6m respectively recorded in FY23. The drop in revenue was said to be primarily due to the change from a 53-week to a 52-week period, one-off costs associated with the Dartmouth shop closure, and extensive repair work at its freehold property in Looe, Cornwall.
“Sales have been in line with expectation but, like most businesses of our type, thrive in good weather,” said the GM. He noted that the new Brighton shop had indoor capacity for 28 seats, which marked a company first and formed part of its future strategy to (literally) weatherproof the business. “As the business has grown up it’s been reliant on seasonal locations in places like Cornwall. We’ve got to even those bumps out,” added Mitchell.
While other high street bakery retailers are struggling to mitigate against rising costs and declining footfall – closures announced just this year include Oddie’s in Lancashire, Grange Bakery in Cumbria, and The Crusty Cob in Devon and Somerset – Mitchell appears confident that the Cornish Bakehouse brand will endeavour.
Among the business initiatives he’s implemented since taking the reins are improved inventory controls to reduce shrink and increase margins, introduction of a platform to sell products that would otherwise end up in the bin, changing suppliers or renegotiating better prices, and integrating pin pads and tills to limit cash shortages.
Bestsellers at Cornish Bakehouse remain its traditional Cornish pasties and sausage rolls, as well as cakes and brownies supplied by sister company Peck & Strong in Devon. However, Mitchell has also overseen an increase in NPD activity that has helped expand the range by 10%. It now offers sandwiches, baguettes, paninis, breakfast rolls, and Viennoiserie, as well as sweet treats such as cannoli and giant Swiss meringues.
Since the start of the year, it has unveiled a Pasty of the Month – Vegan Thai and Chilli Beef are two flavours that have already been and gone, while Chicken Balti has just rolled out for April. A gourmet Vegan Bhaji Roll is being prepared for launch across all shops soon too.
Mitchell concedes that the company will struggle to compete with the likes of Greggs on price, but has been guiding a programme to improve price perception among customers through highlighting the higher quality of products. “Our sausage roll is 50p more expensive than Greggs, but if you weighed up our sausage roll there’d be more meat content. Taste is absolutely king,” he added.
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