Hambleton Bakery opens site at the Ram Jam Inn near Stretton
The smell of freshly baked bread filled the air at the official opening of Hambleton Bakery's new site.
The Exton-based company, founded in 2008 by Tim Hart and Julian Carter, has grown at a rapid pace and it was decided by the duo an additional location is kneaded to meet demand.
Bread is now being baked at Hambleton Bakery's new facility at the Ram Jam Inn near Stretton.
The spacious bakery was officially opened this morning (April 7), by Rutland MP Alicia Kearns (Con) who did the honours of pulling a freshly baked sourdough loaf out of the scorching oven.
"It is such a Rutland institution," she said. "All of Rutland is so proud of its amazing success story.
"In 2012 it was named the Best British Bakery but it has kept Rutland at the heart."
Despite being a big fan of the bakery and declaring the tea cakes and cheese straws her favourites, Alicia won't be switching Westminster debates for kneading dough at the moment, and happily handed the bread paddle back to the expert.
Baker Julian, 59, is impressed with the new premises and his team of 19 at the Ram Jam.
He said: "It feels like I have always been here. It didn't take long to adjust.
"In our former bakery we had a big problem with the amount of heat in the ovens. We couldn't bake to the finishes we wanted.
"But this oven is like the Rolls-Royce of ovens - it goes three metres back so the crust and texture it brings is amazing."
The new oven allows bakers to produce about 1,000 loaves in a day, and have space to cool and store them.
Julian, who lives in Oakham, comes from a family of 10 generations of bakers.
After his family's business in Liverpool shut down in 1986 he took on a job as a chef, working for the likes of former Prime Minister John Major and at Hambleton Hall.
But having started the bakery with Tim in 2008, he has never looked back.
Julian has now moved away from the day-to-day baking and instead manages the teams and creates new recipes.
Loaves are being baked at the Ram Jam while the firm’s Exton premises will be used to produce cakes and will also feature a new café to accompany the existing shop.
Making the artisan bread is not the only thing the building boasts, having been designed in an energy efficient way.
The ventilation adjusts to the heat of the ovens, ensuring staff are not working in a sweltering environment.
David Price and Andrew Nightingale, who helped with the development, described it as one of the best bakeries they have been involved with due to the ventilation and vast space.
Steve Ellis, of Bourne-based Probus Construction, added that the Rutland bakery is leading the way forward for the industry in energy efficiency.
At the opening ceremony Tim reflected on the growth of his business.
He said: "We like to call ourselves an artisan bakery but that word doesn't mean terribly much.
"It may well be a wording contradiction to make artisan bakery produce in a much bigger employee base and bigger machines. We don't think it's a contradiction."
Despite growing as a business due to a large demand, Tim vows to stay regional and dedicated to Rutland.
"The business has expanded much more than I thought. We started originally as a small business," he said.
"I didn't dream too much when I was looking ahead. I had hoped to get a shop going and to see where it goes."
He also spoke of the benefits of Hambleton Bakery's produce over 'standard bread', saying that his bakers use a thorough fermentation.
He added: "Some people are unable to digest bread but actually it's not necessarily the gluten. In many cases in the olden days bread made slowly always used to be digestable."
