The Original Baker invests in workers

In this exclusive video interview, managing director Gill Ridgard and sales and marketing director Cheryl Barrett explain how the time, passion and quality put into their products stems from engaged employees who are enthusiastic about their work.

“I think it’s true to say that fantastic people make fantastic products and we think we have a fantastic workforce that make these products,”​ said Ridgard.

“We couldn’t do that without the workforce that we’ve got, so we invest an awful lot of time in them for them to enjoy what they do, understand what they do and why they do what they do.”​

The future​

Ridgard also talked about the future of the company, including its plans to expand into the gluten-free sector.

“Over the last few months we’ve been working quite hard to increase the overall size of the factory and we’ve acquired two further units that sit next to our existing one. We will turn one into a large cold store,” she explained.

“But the really exciting next part of our venture is the gluten-free facility – we’re building a separate facility to be able to supply this growing market.”​

Despite its growth, The Original Baker’s founders were adamant in keeping the business relatively small in order to focus on the quality of the products it created.

‘We don’t want to be huge’​

“We’re not a huge company – we don’t want to be huge,”​ added Barrett. “We want to remain small and beautiful, so that we have complete control and make the product both constantly and consistently as good as we possibly can and retain the hand-crafted nature​ [of our products].

“People are really important, using their skills and careful nature to make our products as good as they possibly can.”​

Meanwhile, look out our feature on The Original Baker in the April issue of Food Manufacture​​​.