Cooperatives Yorkshire and Humber

A new bakery is not only one of the newest co-operatives in Yorkshire, it may also be the first of its kind in the UK.

The Handmade Bakery is a community supported bakery based in Marsden. Launched earlier this year by husband and wife team Dan and Johanna McTiernan, the bakery aims to re-connect the local community to the food it enjoys.

Although neither Dan nor Johanna are trained bakers, Dan got the baking bug after attending a course at the River Cottage Kitchen.

”I learnt lots of new techniques and it really confirmed my interest in traditionally crafted breads. I decided then that I wouldn’t be buying supermarket bread again.”

Mr McTiernan’s enthusiasm then spread to baking for friends and family and when Johanna was faced with deciding whether to return to work after maternity leave they decided to look at starting their own bakery.

Rather than invest in premises and equipment, Dan and Johanna looked around to see what was already available. A local pizza restaurant – with state of the art stone bake pizza ovens – was closed during the day and its owner was only too pleased to let the new co-operative use the facilities, initially free of charge and now on a reasonable daily rent basis.

The pizzeria also allows the co-operative to sell its bread from its premises every Saturday morning. It is only a two and a half hour slot, but that’s enough time for the co-operative to sell out 140 loaves a week. During the rest of the week, the co-operative’s bread is available at the local health foods store and wholesale opportunities are being explored.

A subscription scheme allows people to pay in advance for their bread – the longer the commitment, the cheaper the bread. This has provided the co-operative with the necessary funding to get the co-operative up and running.

Dan says that the decision to set the bakery up as a co-operative was a natural one: “We wanted the community to feel connected to the business and be part of it. Setting up as a workers’ co-operative means that if we’re able to involve other people as the business expands they can be brought in on an equal basis rather than us being managers and them being staff.”

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