Member Article

37th Thomas the Baker store opens in Skipton

The Mayor of Skipton and the town crier have officially opened a new Thomas the Baker store, which includes a new bakery-come-deli concept, in the Yorkshire town this week.

The high street shop – the 37th for the Yorkshire company – sells not only the baker’s well-known cakes, breads and sandwiches but also Yorkshire cheeses, homemade preserves and ready meals.

“We’ve cherry picked some the most successful elements from our Helmsley deli and brought many of these elements to our newest store,” said Thomas the Baker’s area sales manager Andy Bartlett.

“There’ll be artisan breads such as foccacia, seeded cobs and crusty baguettes, traditional Yorkshire cheeses, as well as our own label marmalades, chutneys and mincemeats, and ready-made curries and lasagnes too. It’s a very tasty concept!”

Skipton’s Mayor John Kerwin-Davey says the shop is “good in every way for the town”, which was voted Best High Street in 2009.

“It’s a cutting edge, superb-looking shop that brings significant quality to the high street and massively upgrades the existing area,” says Kerwin-Davey. “The fact it’s a local, family company is fantastic too because, unlike the giant superstores, it will help invest money into the local community, not take it away.”

To celebrate the launch of the Yorkshire bakery’s latest shop, the Thomas the Baker team handed out free samples and collected money for the Mayor’s chosen charities – Skipton and Craven Action for Disability and Epilepsy Action.

Thomas the Baker was started from humble beginnings in a converted garage by John and Valerie Thomas and young sons Gareth and Simon, 30 years ago.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .