A bakery is celebrating after clinching a deal to supply Waitrose supermarkets across the UK and landing a hat-trick of awards for its mouth-watering crumpets.
Village Bakery, Wrexham triple award winners; Pictured are the Crumpet team at Village Bakery Wrexham, including (LEFT) Rob Glover bakery manager with the BIA award, (centre) Sue Hurling, supervisor with the Quality food award and (right) Brett Rogers, NPD Manager with the BIA award.
The Village Bakery has worked closely with Waitrose to develop a bespoke crumpet that’s now being sold nationwide across 220 of the high-end retailer’s stores.
As well as Sourdough Crumpets, Village Bakery has worked with Waitrose to develop a bespoke Buttermilk Pikelet and an All-butter Welsh Cake.
All three products can be found under the Waitrose own label brand in Menai Bridge and Chester stores, and early sales across the range indicate they are already firm favourites.
They were perfected at the Village Bakery’s state-of-the-art Baking Academy and Innovation centre on Wrexham Industrial Estate.
The family-run firm, which employs more than 400 people, also has a bakery in Minera.
Hot on the heels of the Waitrose launch, there’s been further delight with the news of winning prestigious industry awards.
The Village Bakery’s five-grain crumpets were awarded a gold award for innovation at the Baking Industry Awards, whilst their sourdough crumpets were honoured at the Quality Food Awards and won a gold award from the food industry magazine, The Grocer.
Robin Jones, Managing Director, commented “We’ve got a reputation for making the best crumpets in the UK and we’re very proud of that.
“They’re fantastic products, they’re really tasty and the customers just love them. We’ve got a lovely team of people making them who are very passionate and you can taste that in the product.
“The investment in our innovation centre is really paying dividends and we have a whole range of new and exciting products in the pipeline.
“We are lucky to have an excellent team here and they are making a difference every day.
“We’ve got a very simple mantra here. If we use the best ingredients and use them properly and care about them, we’ll get the very best products. As a result, we’re making more crumpets than ever.”
Bakery manager Rob Glover added “The perfect crumpet delivers a nice crunch on the outside, nice and toasted, but you still want the middle nice and soft. You need lots of what are called the chimneys which are the holes, so that is actually holding the butter.”
Crumpet line supervisor Sue Herling enjoys the fruits of her labour.
She said: “All of the hard work has really paid off. We’ve got a really good team that has achieved that. It’s fantastic.
“I think the reason we’ve won all these awards is that Village crumpets are absolutely delicious. I have a crumpet for breakfast every day.”
