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F E AT U R E<br />
A proven success<br />
LICHFIELD BAKERY HINDLEY’S IS CELEBRATING AN IMPRESSIVE 125 YEARS IN BUSINESS THIS MONTH.<br />
AMY NORBURY CHATS TO OWNERS DUNCAN HINDLEY AND JACKIE BEAUMONT ABOUT THEIR MILESTONE<br />
From buttalumps to bloomers, sourdough to spelt<br />
bread, there’s a hive of activity day and night which<br />
results in some of the tastiest baked products you can<br />
find for miles around. In making all of the bread,<br />
pastries, cakes and other goodies which adorn their<br />
shelves on site, Lichfield bakery owner Duncan<br />
Hindley and his team are carrying on a family<br />
tradition which stretches back some 125 years.<br />
In 1893, Duncan’s great-grandfather Joseph Hindley<br />
purchased a bakery in Upper Brook Street, Rugeley,<br />
with records showing he parted with the princely sum<br />
of £45 for ‘goodwill, utensils and stock’. His first days<br />
takings, on <strong>April</strong> 6 of that year, show as £1 8s 6d. And<br />
from that modest start, Hindley’s grew to become one<br />
of the most recognised bakery names in the Midlands.<br />
In the early 1960s, the main operation moved to a<br />
new purpose-built bakery site in Rugeley, on Wharf<br />
Road. A programme of expansion over the years saw<br />
the operation reach its peak with some 230 people<br />
employed across 18 shops, as well as at Wharf Road,<br />
which underwent an extension in 1990.<br />
Duncan and his sister Jackie Beaumont are the fourth<br />
generation of the family to helm the business. After<br />
training at bakery college in the mid-Eighties Duncan<br />
developed his skills at a bakery in Bolton before<br />
returning home to join the family business in 1990, at<br />
the age of 23. He took over the reins from their father<br />
Graham when the senior Hindley retired three years<br />
DUNCAN HINDLEY AND JACKIE<br />
BEAUMONT ARE THE FOURTH<br />
GENERATION TO RUN THE BAKERY<br />
later. After a successful career in marketing, Jackie<br />
came on board in 2002.<br />
“Our father ran the business from 1958 and retired just<br />
after our centenary in 1993,” says Duncan. “Previous<br />
to that our grandfather and great-grandfather ran the<br />
business, and our uncle was involved for many years<br />
too.”<br />
Jackie’s introduction came at a critical time for<br />
the business. As well as supplying their own shops,<br />
Hindley’s produced a full range of bread for 16<br />
Somerfield stores. But as a mid-sized bakery unable to<br />
produce the vast quantities needed to reach the next<br />
level, economies of scale just didn’t add up.<br />
“I decided we had three options,” says Duncan<br />
candidly. “We needed to double in size, half in size or<br />
sell the business. I just knew we couldn’t carry on doing<br />
what we were doing and we needed a radical change.”<br />
“Duncan was looking for new ways forward and fresh<br />
ideas, and I worked at a marketing agency and we<br />
thought it would work well with me coming in from a<br />
completely non-food related perspective,” says Jackie.<br />
“Previously it was all about what we could make,<br />
whereas we needed to look at it differently and discover<br />
what it was our customers really wanted.”<br />
With the high street already in decline Duncan and<br />
Jackie opted to downsize, shifting their focus to a more<br />
artisan way of working. Over their illustrious 125-year<br />
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