Kitchen Bakes – baking for generations
As it marks four decades bringing sweet treats to homes across Northern Ireland, Dean McCullough from Kitchen Bakes reflects on the journey of the third-generation family business.
The genesis of Kitchen Bakes stems back to the mid-1970s when Harold and Gladys McCullough, both bakers by trade, owned a home bakery shop in Portadown.
With a passion for baking and making bakery products, the couple soon became a trusted business in the local area. And while they had to close the business due to redevelopment in the area, they maintained the desire to bake and were soon looking for a new location to reopen their business.
In 1986, they saw an opportunity to make frozen apple tarts and sausage rolls with the aim of selling them in the shop for people to take home and bake in their own homes, and Kitchen Bakes was born.
Renting out a small unit in Lurgan, they soon employed an apprentice to help them out, with Mark Porter joining the company the following year. As Dean told NR, Mark is their longest-serving employee, having been with the company for 39 years and is now production supervisor.
“Through time the business grew and people were taking their bakes home to bake them and over time my parents went onto acquire our current premises in Mahon Industrial Estate,” said Dean.
“As the business grew and with the advent of programmes such as Great British Bake Off and hot food and deli counters in shops, the business developed further and we were able to supply sausage rolls in catering packs.
“We started to develop a range of fresh and ambient products, so we now have two arms to the business: the frozen unbaked products and the fresh traybakes and ambient products.”
Growth and diversification are the name of the game, and as his parents approached retirement age, they asked Dean if he was interested in joining the business. He now marks his own anniversary of 30 years with the company and has enjoyed seeing it grow and develop over that time.
“Thankfully from then, we have been able to continue to grow. We have seen year-on-year growth as far as sales and our customer base goes,” said Dean.
“We now supply about three quarters of Northern Ireland’s retail industry, independent convenience sector shops.
“While we still of course have the same range of products with our frozen sausage rolls and tarts and the fresh products, over the last 10 years, we have also moved into the food service industry and supply traybakes into that, and we now have an account in the south of Ireland.”
While the original staff were Harold and Gladys and then Mark, the company now employs 26 people across the business, from production to delivery, with four delivery vans servicing over 120 accounts on a weekly basis, and three admin staff. Dean said it was a credit to his parents that the company continues to be a success.
“I put it down to the quality and consistency of our products. We hope and believe that our customers know that when they buy our products, they know it will be something good,” said Dean.
“It has always been our philosophy to get the product in as good a condition as possible, from production to purchase. We always want them to buy our products again. As owners and staff, this is something that we would buy ourselves and we hope to achieve that through the quality of our products.”
Across the last 40 years there have been a host of changes and developments within the sector, with Dean bearing witness to many in his tenure, but he believes that consistency and recognising a work-life balance are important in running a business.
“Thankfully for us, staffing has not been an issue. We have managed to keep a number of staff here for a long time, our general manager has been here for 30 years and others have been here for 20 years and more,” he said.
“We have also had a philosophy that we are family-owned and believe that people have to have time with their families. We have a five-day working week and family time at the weekend, and this makes it easier and more attractive to people.
“Our staff finish at 12pm on a Friday. I have gone through it with my own kids in the business and now two of my sons work in the business, so those family values are something we have always believed in and try to protect.
