This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
    • Politics
    • Transport
    • Lifestyle
    • Community
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Education
    • Sport
    • Harrogate
    • Ripon
    • Knaresborough
    • Boroughbridge
    • Pateley Bridge
    • Masham
  • What's On
  • Offers
  • Newsletter
  • Podcasts

Interested in advertising with us?

Advertise with us

  • News & Features
  • Your Area
  • What's On
  • Offers
  • Newsletter
  • Podcasts
  • Politics
  • Transport
  • Lifestyle
  • Community
  • Business
  • Crime
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Education
  • Sport
Advertise with us
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Latest News

We want to hear from you

Tell us your opinions and views on what we cover

Contact us
Connect with us
  • About us
  • Advertise your job
  • Correction and complaints
Download on App StoreDownload on Google Play Store
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Statement
  • Comments Participation T&Cs
Trust In Journalism

Copyright © 2020 The Stray Ferret Ltd, All Rights Reserved

Site by Show + Tell

Subscribe to trusted local news

In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

  • Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.

Already a subscriber? Log in here.

21

Feb 2024

Last Updated: 21/02/2024

Business Q&A: Paul Rawlinson, Baltzersen's & Bakeri Baltzersen

by John Grainger

| 21 Feb, 2024
Comment

0

baltzersens-paulrawlinson-strap
Paul Rawlinson, owner of Baltzersen's and Bakeri Baltzersen in Harrogate.

This is the second in a new weekly series of Business Q&A features. 

This week, we spoke to Paul Rawlinson, director of Baltzersen's and Bakeri Baltzersen on Oxford Street, Harrogate. 

Tell us in fewer than 30 words what your firm does. 

We have two parts. Baltzersen’s is a Scandinavian-inspired café in the centre of Harrogate serving breakfast, brunch, lunch, coffee and pastries. Bakeri Baltzersen is a wholesale and retail bakery that supplies businesses across North and West Yorkshire and has shops in Harrogate and Wetherby.

What does it require to be successful in business?

We’ve been in business for 12 years and the last four years have been particularly eventful. What it requires is the willingness to consistently turn up and keep moving forward and trying to improve. Ultimately, we want to make things better for our guests and customers, our teams and our family.

What drives you to do what you do every day? 

I look at how far we’ve come as a business and I know we’re not close to where I want to be. Not for the people that work within the business and not on a personal level.  There is so much more to do.

What has been the toughest issue your company has had to deal with over the last 12 months? 

I think it’s the constant change that's tough to deal with, and that stretches back beyond 12 months – it’s been non-stop drama for four years. With a business that’s open seven days a week and often with someone on duty up to 23 hours a day, there's always the potential for something to go awry!  

I do think in the last four or five months we’ve seen a lot of businesses, big and small, finally losing the fight, and I always feel for people who’ve given everything they could and not been able to come out the other side.

Which other local firms do you most admire and why? 

In Harrogate everyone knows Bettys – it’s iconic. The longevity of the company, the way they have grown the Taylors side of that business, and the way they walk the talk on sourcing and investing in the supplier side of that business is to be admired.

Who are the most inspiring local leaders? 

I look to colleagues who run businesses locally with a lot of admiration. What people are able to do with relatively modest resources and the venues and experiences they can create is unreal. People like Simon at Starling or Rich and Danni at Little Ale House – they're working in their businesses and investing back into them to make them better.

What could be done locally to boost business? 

I think it’s a really tricky time and there are lots of different strategies for different businesses – and it’s tough to please everyone. There's no doubt for Harrogate the conference centre is a point of difference and brings a lot of business to town, so making the best use of that facility is absolutely key.

I’d like to see some action at national level around business rates, and from a hospitality perspective a decrease in VAT could really help.

Best and worst things about running a business from Harrogate? 

I haven’t grown up in Harrogate and I feel privileged to live here, even if sometimes you see and hear people complaining. We’ve always had great support locally and I value that. I think people are willing to pay that little bit more for something they believe is worth it. It does feel like town is very quiet during the week. Sometimes I look at York and Leeds and think I would like a bit of that volume!

What are your business plans for the future? 

We’re in the process of making some big changes to our range of products at the bakery. We’re launching a vegan range, we’ll have some more frequently rotating products, and once that's sorted we’ll be focusing back in on bread. We’d like to open more retail bakery shops/cafés in the future, but it all takes time! 

What do you like to do on your time off? 

We have two boys under 10, so we spend a lot of time taking them to various sports and activities and generally amusing them. We watched Northern Superchargers [cricket team in Leeds] in The Hundred over the summer, have seen a couple of Leeds Knights ice hockey games at Elland Road this season and a few Harrogate Town games – all great family activities. Spending time with family is the most important thing, and this hasn’t always been easy with a growing business, so I’m conscious I don’t want to lose any more time.

I play padel with friends at Surge in Hornbeam Park, which has been really fun over the last few years.  

Best place to eat and drink locally? 

If we eat out in Harrogate we’ll likely go to Stuzzi or Domo [the Japanese restaurant in the Montpellier Quarter].  

I think we're blessed with an amazing indie bar scene, so it’s great to be able to visit Little Ale House, North Bar, Starling, Major Tom’s Social, Husk, The Disappearing Chin, Roosters or Cold Bath Brewing Co. I love it when friends visit and I can take them around all of these venues without a brewery tie in sight. A lot of places can’t compete.

I’d recommend everyone to visit Josh and Ellie at their new home for Paradise just near the Jubilee Car Park – it’s another great addition.


  • If you know someone in business in the Harrogate district and you'd like to suggest them for this feature, drop us a line at contact@thestrayferret.co.uk. 






Read more:



  • Business Q&A: Sophie Hartley, Sophie Likes

  • Sax player goes viral after performance on Harrogate train






[the_ad id="182785"]