Hobbs House Bakery has been quietly flourishing, pioneering its way through bread baking across a history stretching back to 1920. A name that still conjures quality, innovation and satisfying taste, the fiercely independent business continues to thrive through the talents of brothers Tom and Henry Herbert. Andy Probert sat down with Henry to discuss the company’s desire to 'green-up' its expansion plans, and the true meaning of sourdough.
Henry Herbert is passionate, as he hammers home the truths of shouldering a five-generation hub of innovation with his brother George, the desire to de-mystify what ‘sourdough’ is – and a commitment to bring sustainability to the table.
From their Hobbs House Bakery HQ, located in the Cotswolds in Chipping Sodbury, the brothers enjoy the views of quintessential English countryside. But look closer, and the brothers’ environment is one of industriousness, urgency and no lack of forward planning.
“We remain a fully independent family business, with a pipeline of family members coming through,” said Mr Herbert. “What sets the bakery apart is having very clear strong core values indelibly stamped at its heart.”
The bakery employs 160 people and operates five shops, one in Bristol and four in the surrounding market towns of Chipping Sodbury, Nailsworth, Malmesbury and Tetbury. The business has taken on more wholesale customers, a mix of hospitality and resellers, such as country shops, delis and retailers. “We have seen massive growth on this front in the last decade,” explained Mr Herbert. “We are good at making bread to a high standard. Wholesale now represents 85% of our business.”
The company operates two business models: with fresh products delivered within 25 miles of its production hub, and a frozen range
for customers nationwide. “We offer a consistent 24/6 baking operation, and bake between 130,000 and 150,000 units a week,” he added.
“We see ourselves as custodians of a business, building a legacy with a long-term view. Our team is an extended family, the customers our backbone. We are a growing bakery, but with strong family values driving its soul. We are not dazzled by the bright lights of fast profit and rapid growth.”
With the production hub spread over nine facilities on one site, the bakery is looking to expand and maintain its 10% year-on-year growth of recent times. It has signed a 20-year lease for the site and taken on an additional 10,000sqft, taking its total footprint to 30,000sqft.
“We are rebuilding the bakery,” Mr Herbert explained, “which is about three-quarters done. It will cost about £2 million, but once complete, it will set us up for the next 20 years.”
Forward-looking
Hobbs House Bakery began life when a blacksmith hit hard times. He was persuaded by his wife to hang up his leather apron, swap it for a linen one, and learn to bake bread. He began to make bread with less yeast and started using the 'overnight' method, which the family uses to this day.
The business thrived, and in 1970, baked Bristol’s first known organic loaf. The family continued to move with the times, culminating with their Olive Loaf winning two stars at the illustrious Great Taste Awards in 2020. It has perfected baking one of its most loved loaves, the mighty Organic Wild White Sourdough. With a flavour-filled crust, a moist and chewy centre, and an irresistible sourdough taste, the loaf is slowly risen for 14 hours and made with their nearly 70-year-old Sourdough recipe. For the past two decades, the Herbert brothers have continued pushing the frontiers of baking, as well as finding fame on the Channel 4 television series The Fabulous Baker Brothers, showing how anyone can bake.
Beyond bread
In 2019, the bakery became the first in the UK to become a Certified B Corporation. This accreditation proves it meets the highest social and environmental standards for people and the planet.
“Community and sustainability have been at the heart of our business since we baked our first loaf of bread over 100 years ago,” Mr Herbert said. “Now, through the B Corp accreditation, we have the stamp to prove it, and this validates what we stand for.”
Hobbs House Bakery’s charitable efforts range from donating 250 loaves a week to the local community to a ‘buy one, give one’ initiative in, which one loaf is donated to children in Tanzania for every gluten-free loaf sold. The bakery has removed all plastic packaging for its online orders and works hard to eliminate waste, such as using leftover croissant dough to make cinnamon buns.
The company’s most important ingredient, flour, is sourced from Shipton Mill, 15 miles away from the bakery. “We have worked with the mill’s owners for over four decades,” added Mr Herbert, “and we mirror their sustainability, provenance and quality values.”
The company now issues regular impact reports assessing its carbon footprint and environmental goals, according to Mr Herbert: “We have assessed our suppliers and been on a real journey to understand our farmers and miller. This has led us to look at regenerative agriculture, and there’s a good network of local producers who want to farm differently.”
While the bakery has set targets to reduce its carbon emissions to net zero by 2032, it has ambitions to source 95% of its flour from ‘healthier and fertile soils’ within a decade.
“Our flour processing produces around 60% of our carbon,” Mr Herbert explained. “The bakery needs grain for flour; our priority is to find and use flour from well-farmed grain and not damage the soil in which it is grown.
“We are trialing recipes made with better local grains while learning the impact this will have on our processes and products. It will lead to better-tasting products that are good for our planet, our communities and our bodies.”
Adding value
To counter labour shortages, Hobbs House Bakery has developed in-house training to enable apprentices to become fully-fledged bakers, as Mr Herbert described: “We relied in the past on local bakers, but that resource dried up. Our apprenticeship scheme comes with a long-term view to invest in today’s youth and enable the business to grow sustainably by having a pipeline of talent.
“We remain a people-first company by looking after each other, ensuring we offer quality products that never under-deliver, and respect the ingredients so consumers will fully enjoy the results.”
This feeds into the bakery joining other artisan and independent bakers under the Real Bread Campaign to re-assert the true meaning of ‘sourdough’ and ensure consumer clarity in food labelling.
“We are advocates for true sourdough,” Mr Herbert concluded. “Sourdough is bread in its purest form and begins with a starter, a living wild yeast culture used to raise the bread. Ours has been used and replenished daily for several decades. A loaf not made using the proper method and called sourdough is highly misleading.
“It’s obvious we care about what we do. We will never fall into the trap of adding preservatives and additives to our bread. The family legacy has lasted more than 100 years, and we will never sacrifice our craft and artisanal skills.” n
