Grants Bakery Corbridge named Northumberland's best bakery

Grants Bakery in Corbridge was named the county winner in the National Bakery Awards.

The National Bakery Awards involves all county award winners attending the event in London to find out which bakeries will be crowned winners of the regional awards and win the overall title of National Bakery of the Year.

A selection of some of the treats on offer (Image: Grants Bakery)

Alongside the awards ceremony, there is an opportunity for face-to-face networking with some of the best bakers attending from across the UK, including independent, craft and artisan businesses, right up to plant bakers and wholesalers.

Andrew Cotterell, the owner of Grant's, said the award is very important, as it is an 'acknowledgement of everything we're trying to achieve in the business'.

Andrew has been in the baking industry for more than 40 years and opened Grants more than a decade ago.

"It's the fourth major award the shop has won in the last few years," he said.

One previous award the bakery won was receiving the Craft Bakery Business Award for the best retail bakery in the North, at the Baking Industry Awards in 2019.

Andrew said: "It's a lovely accolade, not just for me but for the staff. There's a lot of hard work and long hours to achieve what we do achieve in the shop.

"People don't realise the amount of effort that goes into it.

"To be put in for this award and win it is very good because it's either a customer who has nominated us or it's a supplier."

Andrew said they are doing a lot of online business compared to several years ago.

"The shop is getting a full refit hopefully within the next six months to upgrade it, so there's lot of things going on and employing new high-level staff, who are coming from London."

Andrew added: "It's a nice recognition, not just for me, I'm just the frontman but there's another 15 staff there who work really hard."

Maple Patisserie was the County Durham winner and Northern Rye was the county winner in Tyne and Wear.