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Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Baking |
Founded | 1876 |
Founder | Thomas Warburton |
Headquarters | Bolton, Greater Manchester, England |
Key people | Jonathan Warburton (Chairman) |
Products | Bread and other bakery goods |
Revenue | £574.4 million |
Owner |
|
Number of employees | Over 4,500 [1] |
Parent | Warburtons Holdings Limited [2] |
Website | warburtons |
Warburtons Limited [3] is a British baking firm founded by Thomas Warburton in 1876 and based in Bolton, a town formerly in Lancashire, England, and now in Greater Manchester. For much of its history Warburtons only had bakeries in Lancashire and it remains a family-owned company. As of 2018, Warburtons has 12 bakeries, 14 depots, and 4,500 employees around the UK. [4]
The company embarked on a large expansion programme in the late 1990s which continued in the 2000s and it has grown across the United Kingdom after being relatively unheard of outside the North West. [5] By 2010, it had a 24% share of the UK bread market compared with 2% when it was based solely in Bolton. [6] In 2008, Warburtons was the most popular bread in Lancashire with a 45% market share compared with just 15% in London. [7]
In 2012, the Warburtons brand was the most popular bread in the United Kingdom, ahead of rivals Kingsmill and Hovis, a position it claimed in 2008. [8] Up to 2010, Warburtons products were the second-best selling food and drink brand in the UK after Coca-Cola [6] and ahead of brands such as Cadbury's, Barr's, and Walker's. [9]
The company donated £25,000 to the Conservative Party in 2010, and staged one of David Cameron's speeches at its Bolton headquarters. [10] [11] In a 2016 interview with Campaign , chairman Jonathan Warburton was quoted as saying Brexit was "a very good thing to have happened", and called the European Union a "rotting corpse". [12] [13]
In response to the UK Government's measures against COVID-19, Warburton said "It went too far... people have been hugely fearful, unnecessarily". [14]
Ellen and Thomas Warburton bought a small grocery shop in Bolton in 1876. The business grew and Thomas' nephew Henry joined the business when he was 16 and became a skilled baker by the age of 25. Henry continued to expand the business and the location of the bakery was moved four times in 25 years finishing with the opening of Back o'th' Bank Bakery opened by Rachael Warburton in July 1915. Henry became involved in local affairs within the community and stood as a Liberal candidate. He became mayor of Bolton. Henry Warburton died in 1936.
Warburtons grew with the purchase of several smaller companies in North West England.
Production of bread was based solely in Bolton for much of the company's history. Because of this, during transport the bread lost its freshness by the time it arrived anywhere outside the North West of England. With demand increasing from national retailers such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's, [15] in the late 1990s the company embarked on an expansion programme and opened new plants at Eastwood in Nottinghamshire, Bellshill and Wednesbury. Warburtons moved into Scotland in 1996 and by 2003 the company had a 32% share of the Scottish bread market. [16]
In October 2003, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh opened Warburtons' eleventh bakery in Enfield, North London. In 2004, Warburtons increased production in Scotland with the completion of Bellshill, phase two. Rathbones Bakeries, based in Walsall, went into administration in April 2005, and Warburtons bought a bakery at Stockton-on-Tees just off the A66 near Preston-on-Tees in January 2005, and another bakery at Rogerstone near the A467 at Newport in November 2005. A £60m 12-acre (49,000 m2) super bakery in Normanton, West Yorkshire opened in March 2006, claiming to be the largest bakery in Europe.[ citation needed ] Other bakeries outside of the Lancashire area are in Newburn for Newcastle upon Tyne next to the A6085 and River Tyne.
In 2010, the company announced the closure of its Newport facility, but retained a distribution depot at Port Talbot to continue service to the South Wales market. Production was transferred to a new plant in Bristol. The lease on the Newport plant was ceded to Brace's Bakery. [17]
In 2013, the Daily Mirror named Warburtons as Britain's best loved shopping brand ahead of Coca-Cola, Heinz, and Cadbury. [18] [ better source needed ]
In early 2015, Warburtons announced the use of Sylvester Stallone in its marketing campaign, with Stallone re-enacting parts he had played previously. [19] Another advert involves The Muppets singing about the new brand of giant crumpets, in a style almost identical to the opening theme of The Muppet Show , whilst the advert with Peter Kay plays on the Bolton connection.[ citation needed ]
In May 2019, Robert De Niro appeared in an advert for Warburtons bagels. [20] In 2021, George Clooney appeared in a TV advert alongside Jonathan Warburton. [21] In 2023, Samuel L. Jackson portrayed Warburton in an advert for the Warburtons Toastie loaf. [22] [23]
In March 2020, Warburtons was criticised by smaller independent retailers for prioritising delivieries to larger supermarkets as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. [24]
In January 2023, Waitrose said it had stopped stocking Warburtons products the previous year amid a commercial dispute, "after their performance didn’t meet our expectations." [25]
Warburtons makes five categories of products: Bread, Rolls, Bakery Snacks (including crumpets and potato cakes), Gluten Free and Weight Watchers.
Warburtons' staple products include the orange wrappered Toastie loaf, the blue wrappered Medium loaf and the green wrappered Thickest loaf, all of which are wrapped in wax paper.
A bagel is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. Bagels are traditionally made from yeasted wheat dough that is shaped by hand into a torus or ring, briefly boiled in water, and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior.
Sliced bread is a loaf of bread that has been sliced with a machine and packaged for convenience, as opposed to the consumer cutting it with a knife. It was first sold in 1928, advertised as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped". By 1933, around 80% of bread sold in the US was pre-sliced, leading to the popular idiom "greatest thing since sliced bread".
A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based baked goods made in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bagels, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises. In some countries, a distinction is made between bakeries, which primarily sell breads, and pâtisseries, which primarily sell sweet baked goods.
An English muffin is a small, round and flat yeast-leavened bread which is commonly 4 in (10 cm) round and 1.5 in (4 cm) tall. It is generally split horizontally and served toasted. In North America, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, it is frequently eaten with sweet or savoury toppings such as butter, fruit jam, honey, eggs, sausage, bacon, or cheese. English muffins are an essential ingredient in eggs Benedict and a variety of breakfast sandwiches derived from it, such as the McMuffin, and can be used in place of other breads for French toast.
A crumpet is a small griddle bread made from an unsweetened batter of water or milk, flour, and yeast, popular in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.
Cadbury Dairy Milk is a British brand of milk chocolate manufactured by Cadbury. It was introduced in the United Kingdom in June 1905 and now consists of a number of products. Every product in the Dairy Milk line is made with exclusively milk chocolate. In 1928, Cadbury's introduced the "glass and a half" slogan to accompany the Dairy Milk chocolate bar, to advertise the bar's higher milk content.
A pie iron—also called pudgy pie iron, sandwich toaster, snackwicher, toastie maker—is a cooking appliance that consists of two hinged concave, round or square, cast iron or aluminium plates on long handles. Its "clamshell" design resembles that of a waffle iron, but without that appliance's honeycomb pattern. Pie irons are used to heat, toast and seal the sandwich.
Rogerstone is a large village and community (parish) in Newport, Wales. The area is governed by Newport City Council. The village falls within the ancient parish of Bassaleg and historic county of Monmouthshire.
Bagel Bites are a brand of frozen pizza bagel snacks produced by Kraft Heinz.
Veda bread is a brand of malt loaf traditionally produced across the United Kingdom and Ireland. However, today it is mainly produced in Northern Ireland. It is a small, caramel-colored malted bread with a soft consistency when fresh, being sold under the brands Ormo, Sunblest and Irwin’s.
Thomas' is a brand of English muffins and bagels in North America, established in 1880. It is owned by Bimbo Bakeries USA, one of the largest baking companies in the United States, which also owns Entenmann's, Sara Lee, Stroehmann, and Arnold bread companies. Advertisements for the muffins place emphasis on their "nooks and crannies". The company also produces toasting or swirl breads, pitas, wraps, and bagels.
Tip Top Bakeries is an Australian manufacturer of bread products owned by George Weston Foods, a subsidiary of multinational food giant Associated British Foods.
Pepperidge Farm is an American commercial bakery founded in 1937 by Margaret Rudkin, who named the brand after her family's 123-acre farm property in Fairfield, Connecticut, which had been named for the pepperidge tree.
Malt loaf is a type of sweet leavened bread made with malt extract as a primary ingredient. It has a chewy texture and often contains raisins. It is usually eaten sliced and spread with butter for tea. Malt flour is sometimes used to supplement the flavour.
Sayers the Bakers is the largest independent retail baker in the North West of England, established in 1912 in Liverpool. The retailer sells savouries, sandwiches and bakery products across over 150 stores, from Fleetwood in Lancashire down to Wrexham in Wales. Sayers remained a family run business until 1977 when it was sold to United Biscuits, and then again to Warburtons in 1990. In 2019, it went into administration but was bought by a new company, Sayers and Poundbakery.
Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc. is the American corporate arm of the Mexican multinational bakery product manufacturing company Grupo Bimbo. It is the largest bakery company in the United States. The company, headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, owns many fresh bread and sweet baked goods brands in the United States, including Entenmann's, Sara Lee, and Thomas'. It is also a top advertising sponsor for many major soccer teams around the globe.
Brace's Bakery is a Crumlin-based Welsh bakery and bakery products brand.