Notting Hill Bakery has earned a reputation in London for delivering top-quality, hand-shaped artisan bread, viennoiserie and patisserie. Initially established exclusively to serve Sally Clarke’s restaurant and shops in West London, the company has expanded its reach to cater for a diverse selection of wholesale clients. Hannah Barnett spoke to Adrian Maccelari, Managing Director, to learn more.
November 2023 marked a significant milestone for the company now known as Notting Hill Bakery, when it officially transitioned into a fully independent operation.
“The bakery grew out of Clarke’s, a well-known restaurant in Notting Hill, that was opened by Sally Clarke in 1984,” said Managing Director, Adrian Maccelari. “That makes the bakery one of the oldest artisan bakeries in London. Before there was a Gail’s or a Bread Factory, Sally (Clarke) was making bread. In fact, the founder of Bread Factory used to buy bread
from Sally to sell to other businesses. Sally was way ahead of the curve.”
Under the new name, the company’s potential has expanded, while its dedication to top-quality produce continues. Indeed, while a new entity on the dotted line, Notting Hill Bakery enters the marke t armed with decades of experience operating at the highest level of the bakery sector.
Securing the market
Notting Hill Bakery began operating as a significant player in the wholesale market in 2010, when two important things
NOTTING HILL BAKERY I PROFILE
happened – the company signed a contract to provide the bread and viennoiserie on all Eurostar trains, and a significant investment was made in the bakery.
It was at this time that Mr Maccelari was asked to head up the bakery on behalf of Sally Clarke. “I come from a wholesale bakery background,” he explained. “So, for me, it was natural to move into bigger production with more customers and logistics. So, that’s when we started to develop Sally Clarke Bakery as a wholesale brand.”
Since becoming Notting Hill Bakery, the company has retained all its old customers, and still supplies the Sally Clarke businesses. However, being entirely its own entity will allow the company the freedom to develop, grow and thrive in the competitive bakery market in London.
“We now have the opportunity to brand our own goods under Notting Hill Bakery and supply some of our retail customers,” Mr Maccelari said. “We have a great working relationship with Bayley & Sage, the large upscale London-based deli group. We can now look at retail options including ‘own’ label and promoting the Notting Hill Bakery brand.”
Notting Hill Bakery currently has 65 staff to support, manage and produce a vast range of goods including cakes, biscuits, savouries and bread, with around 12 employees dedicated to each section. This takes place within a 10,000 square foot facility which, true to brand, is located off Golborne Road in the heart of Notting Hill.
It is a significant wholesale operation, with around two tonnes of bread and half a tonne
of pastries produced per night. A packing team makes sure that all customers receive the correct goods, and the five delivery drivers ensure on-time delivery.
The company maintains the highest food safety and quality standards with SALSA accreditation in place since 2016. Traditional methods of production are still followed in most areas of the bakery, this includes making quiche bases by hand and prepping veg in-house. Notting Hill Bakery also sets itself apart due to the sheer range of products it offers.
This includes a cake section headed up by a highly skilled French patisserie chef, a biscuit section, a savoury section and a pastry section. On the bread side, the company focuses on sourdough, ciabatta and focaccia. It also has a range of rolls, baguettes and brioche rolls, including vegan brioche.
“We are a one-stop shop for our customers,” said Mr Maccelari. “A lot of bakeries just do bread, pastries and maybe a couple of muffins. One of our strengths is having the skillset in-house that means we can offer a customer a whole basket of goods rather than them having to buy from four different suppliers.”
As strong as its suppliers
As a high-quality outfit, the core ingredients for Notting Hill Bakery are flour and butter, which were initially sourced solely from France.
Since Brexit, the company has moved to a more hybrid model. All butter still comes
from France because it arrives pre-prepared for use in croissants. The company also still uses French suppliers such a MoulBie for specialty goods, but roughly 60% of ingredients are now locally sourced.
“Luckily, there are some excellent British mills around,” Mr Maccelari explained. “We currently use Carr’s and Heygates. Both have adapted their flours to artisan bread making, which meet our requirements.
“We primarily use three dry goods suppliers for everything, from yeast through to nuts, seeds and bulk dry goods. We have a few speciality suppliers on the patisserie side that provide us with niche items that we can’t get from the bulk suppliers.”
For equipment, the company has good relationships with Creeds, who are agents for Merand and Ferneto in the UK and with Scobie Mcintosh, distributor for Revent Ovens, inventor of the world’s first rack oven.
“And about four years ago, for our new facility refit, we bought a German gas
fired oven made by the WP Bakery Group,” Mr Maccelari added. “That was a big investment of around £130,000 so we went to several different oven suppliers before we decided, but WP was the company that filled us with the most confidence. The ovens are great quality, but the standard of aftercare service was equally important.”
Future focused
The bakery is now looking at ways to increase the brand awareness by way o f small, retail outlets within a few miles of the main bakery. It hopes to have a first site open by summer 2024.
In a crowded sector, Notting Hill Bakery has been successful thanks to doing things its own way. The company has no social media presence, though that may change if it pursues its retail plans, and it mainly relies on existing relationships and word-of-mouth to secure business.
Another of the secrets of the company’s success, besides the committed and passionate bakery staff, is a shallow management team.
“There are only four of us in the office looking after the sales, customers and operations,” said Mr Maccelari. “So, we react very quickly and are highly flexible. I meet all the customers myself and take them samples, so they can see that the person who runs the business is also the direct contact.
“Generally, we don’t have too many customer-related issues. And if we do, we can resolve them quickly. It’s not as if we have a sales side with 16 people on the phone to get through to. Even though we’ve grown seven times bigger than when we started, we still run things the same way and the customer is the most important part of that.”
Notting Hill Bakery looks set to continue to evolve in new directions, while
simultaneously preserving its core focus on high-quality goods produced by traditional methods. Passion and dedication are the key elements to the company’s success, with the same values reflected by those who work there.
“I am a complete foodie,” Mr Maccelari concluded. “Anything food related is up my street. Every time we develop a new bread, tweak a recipe, or put five litres more steam on the French baguette, I want to have a look at the progress with the team on the floor. Thankfully, we have a very experienced, skilled and passionate team. Everyone’s excited by what they do.
“It’s hard work, we can’t just make 12,000 products a day and stick them in a box to ship next month. We must repeat the process from scratch every single day. So, it’s quite challenging, but it is also supremely exciting.” n
