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24
Jan
Historic Harrogate bakery to close after 119 years
One of Harrogate’s best-known family businesses is to close down after 119 years in business.
Lancaster’s Bakery, which was founded in 1906 and has been a Cold Bath Road institution for over a century, announced the decision to its seven employees this morning.
The business will continue to trade up to next Saturday (February 1), when the doors will be shut for the final time at 2pm.
Speaking to the Stray Ferret, Mary Catton, who has run the business with her husband John for 42 years, said their retirement was long overdue. She said:
We wanted it to carry on, but unfortunately that wasn’t possible. We’ve explored quite a few avenues, but we found we didn’t really have any other way out.
Anyone taking on the business would have had to take on the employee responsibilities, and food is a hard industry to move into.
She said problems had been mounting for some time. Last summer, they took the decision to stop Lancaster’s wholesale trade, losing four bakers and three delivery drivers, and concentrate on the retail side of the business.
She said:
But increased costs made that difficult too. There was Covid, and then the war in Ukraine sent the price of ingredients soaring, and our utility bills doubled.
Then the Budget increases in employer costs made the situation even worse, with increases in national insurance and the reduction in Business Rate Relief for small businesses.
We didn’t want to close it – it's a family institution. We’re older than Bettys!
Lancaster’s was started by Mary’s grandfather, Harry, who walked to Harrogate from Scarborough because he couldn’t afford the rail fare. He worked in a bakery on Cold Bath Road, then started his own in 1906. The business moved to its current premises in 1917, and subsequent generations – including Mary’s – grew up above the shop.
Mary and John both had previous careers – in finance and the steel industry respectively – but took over the business from Mary’s uncle Jack in 1983.
The bakery still uses its original eight-foot-high four-deck ovens from 1917, which were converted from coke to gas in 1950. They look set to be used for the last time next Saturday.
Mrs Catton said:
We’ve had tremendous loyalty over the years from customers and staff – two of our bakers have been with us for over 30 years.
So it’s a sad day for us, but the bottom line is that it’s time for us to move on, and this is the best solution.
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