Patton’s Bakery, Newtownards

When it comes to home bakeries, Warren Patton runs one of the finest in Northern Ireland.

Based in Newtownards, Warren has been a baker for 23 years and after working in various home bakeries set up his own business in 2004.

Since then, Patton’s Bakery has gone from strength to strength now employing 31 local staff and running a fleet of six lorries from its state-of-the-art premises.

Whilst all business sectors have been finding the past number of years tough, Patton’s has grown its sales year on year and Warren puts this down to investment, innovation and high quality products and service.

“The baking industry has changed in my time,” explained Warren.

“But I think that we have been one of the luckier industries through the hard times. There have been plenty of bakeries that have unfortunately gone out of business but I have noticed that quality, service and affordable products are definitely key in today’s market.”

Warren continued: “We are always innovating, it is paramount. We are trying to bring in new products that are different to our competitors. Northern Ireland as a country is famous for traditional home baked bread, i.e. soda, potato and wheaten breads. It is extremely important that we don’t move away from that.”

As a home bakery, all of Patton’s products are hand crafted from scratch and the attention to detail and high quality ingredients make the produce unique.

When it comes to innovation, Warren is the man behind the ideas.

“I would be the driving force behind everything that we do at Patton’s. We would specialise in hot baked goods, different types of breads a wide range of savoury goods and we do cakes too,” said Warren.

“Our big sellers would be the soft rolls and baps. We are making anything between 25,000 and 30,000 baps a week.”

Warren has invested in the business and in 2010 moved into a 5,000 sq ft purpose built factory which has made a huge difference to the business, in terms of production, and staff morale.

The new factory has allowed the company to increase volume and there is a full-time quality control team on site.

This has helped the company cope with demand for its products from consumers and businesses within the retail and food service sectors.

“We are listed with Hendersons and Mace on the retail side and we deal with five-star hotels, including the Lamon Hotel,” said Warren.

With the price of raw materials rising substantially in the past few years – and showing no sign of dropping – Warren is keen to point out that being a flexible operation is all important, especially when consumers are changing their shopping habits.

“The consumer trends I have noticed are that shoppers want smaller packs; it’s four packs now instead of six packs and we have to adapt to this. So we have changed our pack sizes, you have to go with customer demand and seasonal trends.

Looking at the year ahead  Warren says Patton’s will continue to focus on supplying high quality products to customers and is also working on a plan to export some of its breads.

Aside from that, Warren is hoping for a warm summer. Barbecues mean there’s a need for soft rolls and baps – Patton’s specialty!