A trio of first-time ventures into brick-and-mortar retail as well as shop estate expansions and a café evolution form the latest batch of new UK craft bakery openings.
The businesses traverse England, from London up to both the East and West Midlands, then onto Manchester and even across to Northern Ireland.
Continuing on from the previous edition of the Opening Doors series, here’s the more details on each bakery brand in round-up number 13:
Levain & Cherry, Birmingham
This artisan bakery is expanding its shop estate with the soon-to-be opened second site in the Birmingham suburb of Stirchley. Levain & Cherry’s range includes focaccia, viennoiserie, and sweet and savoury brioche buns, with bestsellers being the sourdough loaves and baguettes, canelés and almond croissants. All products are made with organic flour from Moulin Viron, a family mill just outside of Paris.
Former chef Pascal Bishop started selling baked goods out of his kitchen window in Harborne in April 2020 before establishing his first retail site in King’s Heath a few months later. The new Stirchley shop will feature design influences from Pascal’s French heritage – rustic, simple, and using as many natural materials as possible. At least two more bakers plus a barista and front of house staff are being recruited to join Pascal’s three-strong baking team.
Dougie’s Goodies, Belfast
The Northern Irish brand has added to its original Ballymena site with a vibrant new takeout shop and bakery on Belfast’s Fountain Street. Among the cakes, buns, pastries, and savoury snacks crafted onsite daily are the same signatures products that have been made since Dougie’s Goodies began back in 1983 such as Iced Diamonds, French Fancies, and Jammy Dougies.
Frank Warwick and his wife Georgina purchased the business in 2022 from founder Douglas Coulter, who continues to work at the bakery. It has now grown to supply branded cakes and bakes to over 30 retail outlets across Northern Ireland, with a current workforce of 70 employees. Plans are afoot to further expand its physical stores and online presence, as well as recruit more staff.
Lily & Fox Bakery, Coventry
This artisan firm, founded by husband-and-wife due Daniel Perry and Charlotte Lee, has expanded out of its home-based micro-bakery and into its first bakery and retail shop in the suburb of Earlsdon. Lily is the middle name of the couple’s daughter and the name of Charlotte’s great grandmother, who was a baker in Coventry in the 1950s, while Fox is their son’s middle name and the family name of Daniel’s late uncle.
Funding for the move was supported by an online crowdfunding campaign that raised £7,814 from 96 backers, as well as additional amount from the local council’s Levelling Up Project. Equipment was purchased including a new oven, refrigerator, mixer, dough sheeter, work surfaces, and ventilation, as well as fit out costs like hand-painted signage from Cobra Signs. The business also received guidance and assistance from Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana’s office and the Coventry Chamber of Commerce.
The Lily & Fox range includes sourdough and yeasted loaves, focaccia, soda bread, bagels, scones, brownies, blondies, brioche, cinnamon buns, and other pastries. With increased capacity afforded by the new bakery, they hope to expand the current wholesale business to cover the wider Coventry and Warwickshire areas.
Pinch 2.0, Suffolk
After four years as head chef and owner of Pinch, a takeaway pastry shop located in regenerative and organic Maple Farm near Saxmundham in Suffolk, Alice Norman has evolved a new café concept and moved into a larger, purpose-built space complete with seating for eight indoors and 44 outdoors.
“Being limited by what is available locally has pushed me to be more creative, but everything starts with Maple Farm and what’s growing right under my feet,” commented Norman. This includes organic fruit and vegetables and free-range eggs, and flour from ancient wheat varieties grown locally and stone-milled on the farm using an Osttiroler mill imported from Austria.
The new menu features Roman-style pizzas with toppings that reflect the seasons, and pastries including Pinch’s signature ‘St. Choux’ Choux Au Craquelin made with St Jude custard, and crullers (deep-fried cake doughnuts) in core flavours of Cinnamon Sugar, Coffee & Hazelnut, Chocolate, Honey & Bacon, and Original Glazed. Specials are also rolled out during the holidays include the likes of Hot Cross Maritozzi Buns and Grilled Pump Street Panettone with Marmalade and Nutty Wells Alpine Cheese.
Baker Benji, Daventry
Having been running a baking business for a year out of his rental house, Ben Welch’s landlord complained he was using too much power and told him to relocate in July. A Facebook post to Daventry residents quickly helped find a suitable site on the high street.
Opened in early October, Baker Benji produces and sells a range of sourdough loaves, viennoiserie, traybakes, and sandwiches. A favourite among customers is the 99 Flake Cruffin – a croissant baked in a muffin mould and then filled with Chantilly cream and finished with a flake.
There’s also the Daventry Pothole, a croissant base filled with an Oreo cheesecake mix topped with biscuit crumb, an Oreo cookie and a white chocolate button to resemble a wheel stuck in a hole. “A little joke to the community, as the council were not filling our potholes, now one of my best sellers,” relayed Welch.
Jenna Patties Co., Altrincham
This new shop – described as an “upmarket place, sultry and sophisticated” – is the first brick-and-mortar venture of interior designer turned Instagram bakery brand founder Jenna Walker.
Located on Moss Lane in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, it serves a variety of Jamaican-style bakery products including premium meat patties, spiced buns, banana bread, Bulla cake, and Hardo bread, which is actually soft and fluffy. New “sandos” (sandwiches) will be launched soon with options for fillings including jerk chicken or curry goat, accompanied by plantain or cassava crisps.
Walker noted its customer base would be mainly young professionals and “yummy mummies”, with seating for 14 and a neutral, comfortable and warming ambience inspired by colonial Jamaica. “Our fingers are crossed that we can expand, and we can be like the Caribbean Greggs in terms of number,” she chuckled. “But obviously the quality of products will be a lot more premium”.
Bread Ahead, London
The final new outlet of our round-up might at first glance look like a weekend market stall, but its actually to be a permanent daily fixture of the outdoor space around Battersea Power Station. Catering to the location’s ever-increasing number of office workers and residents, as well as the visiting shoppers, the unit will stock Bread Ahead’s most popular lines including sourdough breads, pastries, cakes, cookies, and deep-filled doughnuts such as its iconic Creme Brûlée creation.
It forms the latest expansion of the company which currently runs shops in Borough Market (original site), Chelsea, Wembley, King’s Cross, Dubai, Jeddah, and Riyadh. Future plans to expand into Asia and the US are on the horizon, it says.
“We are thrilled to bring Bread Ahead to Battersea Power Station, a location that reflects the vibrant and evolving spirit of London,” commented founder Matthew Jones, who gave a Q&A with British Baker earlier this year. ”This is a unique opportunity to connect with new customers in such a dynamic part of the city, and we can’t wait to share our passion for quality baking with the local community.”
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