A trio of London launches, estate expansions across the South, Midlands, and north West, plus a new site in west Wales comprise our latest Opening Doors round-up.
These come from regional craft bakery chains and locally-based artisan firms as well as a couple of European brands making their inaugural moves into the UK retail market.
Check out the list of 10 new openings below:
Birds Bakery, Ashbourne
‘When one door closes, another opens’ is an appropriate idiom for East Midlands bakery chain Birds after maintaining its retail presence in the Derbyshire town of Ashbourne despite shutting its historic Gingerbread Shop on St Johns Street last week.
Just two days later it unveiled a brand-new outlet located a short walk away in Horse & Jockey Yard. Open seven days a week, it is said to provide a warm and inviting space with plenty of seating for customers. It also sees the debut of Birds’ new coffee offering from North Star Coffee, served alongside a core range of fresh bread, pastries, and sweet treats including newcomers such as chocolate chip cookies, cheese pizzas, and Mrs B’s rocky road.
“While we have loved our Ashbourne store over the years, the layout and age of the building made it difficult for us to deliver the shop refresh we needed,” commented joint MD Jamie Bird, referencing the spring green branding the company began rolling out last year across its retail estate. This currently stands at 62 shops after adding a new location in Ruddington and refurbishing its West Bridgford site in recent months.
Coughlans Bakery, Horsham
Coughlans has continued expanding across the southern English counties with a new shop in Horsham. The family-run bakery chain, which operates a central production site in Thornton Heath, was previously compelled to open its 31st site in Crawley by TV presenter and comedian Romesh Ranganathan who also became a co-owner last year.
The latest store is located on Blackbridge Lane in a residential area of southwest Horsham. Like its shops in Crawley, Caterham, Godstone, and Horley, it is open seven days a week with reduced hours on Sundays.
Stocking the bakery counter is Coughlans’ predominantly vegan line-up of breads, sandwiches, toasties, cakes, sweet treats and savoury pastries including a most recent addition, the plant-based Firecracker Chilli Sausage Rolls.
Cruffins, London
The café brand, which hails from the Latvian capital of Riga, has opened its first UK location on Drury Lane near Covent Garden. Its menu features signature sweet cruffins (croissant-muffin hybrids) filled and topped with flavours such as Snickers, pistachio, raspberry cheesecake, and pineapple & coconut. Alternatively, they cruffins are sliced and stuffed to create sandwiches such as Salmon & Avocado, Chicken Caser, and ‘The Londoner’, a UK exclusive made with smoked bacon, soft Clarence Court egg, and brown sauce hollandaise.
The yellow-fronted bakery houses a blue and white interior reflecting the original Riga bakery’s design, with 50 seats for dine-in customers plus a handful of outdoor tables. A loyalty scheme, Cruffins Club, offers regulars some ‘secret flavours’, rewards and surprise gifts. “We’ve built a brand around craft, quality and imagination, and this opening is just the beginning for Cruffins in the UK,” said director Janis Vilisons.
Crwst, Haversfordwest
Welsh artisan bakery Crwst has teamed up with Haverfordwest estate agents Blackbear to open a small shop on the ground floor of their Quay Street office. The new Pembrokeshire outlet is about an hour’s drive from the bakery’s Cardigan base, where it has its original café on Priory Street – it also operates sites in nearby Poppit Sands and in Newcastle Emlyn.
Crwst was founded as a micro-bakery in 2016 at the Cardigan home of husband-and-wife team Osian and Catrin Jones. As sales grew, the business moved to Priory Street and then established a central production site across town on Bath-House Road.
Signature bakes include ‘Torth y Wlad’ sourdough, brioche doughnuts, cinnamon swirls, and pastel de nata, which are produced using organic Shipton Mill flour and supplied to its own venues as well as around 20 local independent shops and restaurants. Crwst also makes spreads and sauces like honey butter and salted caramel, now stocked in Fortnum & Mason.
Forge Bakehouse, Sheffield
The latest retail expansion of Sheffield-based Forge Bakehouse sees it open a new Deli concept on Eccleshall Road in the city’s Banner Cross area. Although the main focus will be on food items to takeaway – such as its breads, pastries, savouries, and sandwiches, as well as locally-sourced cheeses, meats, and other goods – the site will also have a few seats for customers to dine-in.
Forge Bakehouse operates four shops and cafés in Abbeydale, Beauchief, Lodge Moor, and Dronfield, as well as an outlet at Sheffield Station. A restructuring under owner Craig Guest helped rescue it out of administration in late 2023.
Jacksons The Bakers, Clipstone
Another bakery business saved from administration in 2023 was Jacksons, which recently opened a new retail outlet in the Nottinghamshire village of Clipstone, near Mansfield. The business has its head office and bakery in Clay Cross, from which it supplies its existing shop in Chesterfield town centre along with wholesale clients including schools, supermarkets, and football clubs.
Designed as a warm and welcoming space, the new venue is aimed at helping revitalise the high street and provide a new community hub for local residents. It will offer Jacksons’ daily range of handmade breads, cakes, pies, and hot food. “Whether you’re after your morning loaf, a cooked breakfast or an indulgent slice of cake, we’ve got something for everyone,” commented Giles Allen, managing director of Jacksons.
The Clipstone launch is said to be part of a broader regional expansion plan for the brand, with further Midlands sites already under consideration.
Layla Bakery, London
Ladbroke Grove-based artisan bakery Layla has unveiled it second location a short distance across northwest London, on Churchfield Road in Acton.
The new site offers a more intimate experience from the flagship bakery on Portobello Road. Designed primarily as a takeaway spot, it features a few bar stools inside and benches outside for bites of Layla’s sourdough bread, pastries, tarts, and sandwiches.
Rather than being named after a person, or an Eric Clapton guitar classic, Layla is actually derived from the Arabic word for ‘night’ as a reference to the bakery being alive in those silent, serene hours before morning light. It was founded by Tessa Faulkener during lockdown, who said: “Friends who’ve moved to the area often say Acton is missing a neighbourhood spot like Layla. We’re excited to bring the same quality and care that’s made us a favourite in Ladbroke Grove to the Acton community”.
Puffy Cookies, London
Here’s another sweet bakery specialist from a European capital marking its UK entry with a café in London.
Puffy is a Parisian-based cookie brand under the Junk Group portfolio, with four existing sites in France. It has launched a new site next to the Junk Burger outlet on Old Compton Street in Soho. Customers can treat themselves to seven different indulgent varieties including Milk Chocolate, Chocolate Trio, Dark Chocolate, Chocolate Duo & Peanut Butter, Chocolate Duo & Hazelnuts, White Chocolate & Macadamia, and White Chocolate & Matcha.
All cookies are made with Rise Re:Gen flour from Eurostar Commodities, which was rolled out in February and is currently in the running for Sustainability Initiative of the Year 2025. “We believe our unique blend of Parisian craftsmanship and premium ingredients will resonate with Londoners seeking a truly exceptional cookie and coffee experience,” said co-founders Majed Mansour and Wissem Ben Ammar.
The Old Store, Thornham
North Norfolk bakery firm The Old Store admitted it wasn’t looking to expand from its existing shop in Snettisham when it was approached by the landlords at Drove Orchards rural market in Thornham. But with production capacity increased through the move to a larger facility last year, the company thought of it as a “perfect step” in its development.
“It’s such a vibrant and busy site, bursting with life and colour on what started as a farm,” commented Ania Wadolowska, The Old Store brand manager. “It is still growing lots of fruit, some of which we have already used in our bakes.”
The Old Store won the Customer Experience category at the Baking Industry Awards 2023 and has made the “conscious decision of not going down the route of wholesale,” noted Wadolowska, who adds that it considers its brunch offering as its USP. “We couldn’t be happier with the way our new place turned out – it definitely feels like a sibling to our original shop in Snettisham but with its distinctive differences both in offering (addition of burgers) and decor (different colour scheme throughout),” she said.
Usher’s Bakehouse, Liverpool
A latest successful crowdfunding campaign in May for the Chester-based business has given it momentum to set up a new shop in Liverpool’s Bridgewater Street.
Its popular range of focaccia, sourdough, and rye breads will be sold on-site from Wednesdays to Sundays. These will be accompanied by a constantly changing counter of indulgent treats including signature crème brûlée doughnuts, as well as pies, brownies, cookies, and tarts. Some of the bakes take direct inspiration from items served at Elite Bistro restaurants, run by founder and chef Gary Usher.
The Liverpool bakehouse is in the expert hands of Nathan Brockbank, who has Michelin star pastry credentials and eight years of experience as an executive pastry chef for Manchester City football club.
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