Welcome to the Warburtons Family Bakers company history

• 1987

  Peter Kay stars in Warburtons third blockbuster TV campaign – telling the story of how we all began...

   
  
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  1987

  Launches educational farm programme with Country Trust

• 1987

  We break new ground launching Toastie Pockets to the bakery category

• 1986

  Warburtons celebrates its 140 year anniversary.

• 1985

  Warburtons returns to TV screen with new star Kermit the Frog to launch our brand new Giant Crumpets in an all-singing, all-dancing TV extravaganza

• 1985

  We begin our company fundraising partnership with CRUK – starting off with a 300k donation by the Warburtons Family.

• 1985

  Warburtons launches new TV campaign "The Deliverers" - our epic advert starring Hollywood legend Sylvester Stallone

• 1984

  A £20 million new plant, dedicated to producing the Sandwich Alternative range, opens at Warburton's Burnley bakery.

• 1982

  Warburtons opens a new bakery in its home town of Bolton. This is the most modern bakery in Europe.

• 1981

  In this year, Warburtons opened a dedicated gluten-free plant at Newburn, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. A new wraps and thins plant was introduced to the Bristol bakery and a brand new crumpet plant opened at the Enfield bakery in London.

• 1979

  A super bakery opens in Bristol, which can produce more than 1.5 million products a week.

  In this year, Her Majesty the Queen and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh also visited the Back o'th Bank bakery.

• 1975

  Warburtons opened a state of the art bakery in Tuscany Park in Yorkshire, this was the first bakery to have a computerised production line installed.

  Even today, this is one of the most technologically advanced bakeries in the world.

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  1973

  HRH Duke of Edinburgh opens Warburtons' 11th bakery in Enfield North London.

• 1971

  It's a busy year for Warburtons. Not only did the business celebrate its 125th anniversary, but Jonathan Warburton stepped up to the role of Chairman and a new bakery opened in Wednesbury in the West Midlands.

• 1968

  Warburtons opens the doors to two further bakeries in Nottingham and Bellshill, Glasgow.

• 1961

  The fifth generation of family bakers took to the helm. At this point Brett, Jonathan and Ross took on the challenge of running the best bakery business in the UK.

• 1959

  Going from strength-to-strength, the business acquires two further bakeries in Wakefield and Newcastle.

• 1846

  The fourth generation of Warburtons welcomed royalty for their centenary anniversary where they celebrated the growth of the business to the largest bakery in the north of England.

  A brand new bakery also opened in Burnley this year.

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  1935

  Warburtons introduced a new product called Milk Roll, which even 40 years later is still a firm favourite in British households.

• 1920

  Derrick Warburton oversees the rapid expansion of the business across the Northwest, whilst maintaining a commitment to Warburtons' high standards.

• 1950s

  At this time the business saw the fastest expansion of the business to date. This included the modernisation of the Bolton bakery on Hereford Street and acquisition of several northern bakeries. A process that continued through the 1960s and 1970s.

• 1910

  Even with the challenges brought by the war, Warburtons still delivered more than 1,300 loaves of bread per hour.

  However, in light of petrol rationing, electric delivery vehicles were used to deliver bread to the customers.

• 1906

  Henry Warburton passed away and his three sons, George, Harry and Billy, took over as the third generation of family bakers.

• 1900

  Henry Warburton became Mayor of Bolton.

• 1891

  Warburtons installed their very first semi-automatic wrapping machine to deal with the increased demand.

  It was in this year that Billy and Harry joined Warburtons after serving in the first world war.

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  1883

  Henry is rapidly expanding the business, by this point the workforce had increased to 24 people and there were now six delivery vehicles.

• 1867

  Henry buys the Diamond Jubilee bakery on Blackbank Street as well as another shop at 136 Blackburn Road in Bolton. Henry's wife Rachel runs this shop single-handed while bringing up four children!

• 1860

  The business continues to grow and Thomas Warburton buys his first pony to transport goods to customers.

  Due to the success of the business Thomas asked his nephew Henry to join the growing business.

• 1846

  It wasn't until six years later when Ellen Warburton decided to bake bread, after a slump in the grocery market. Her first batch of four loaves of bread and six cakes sold out in under an hour, within two weeks of baking the first loaf the shop was renamed to 'Warburtons the Bakers'.

• 1840

   

  Thomas Warburton and his wife Ellen set up a small grocery shop in Bolton, with the help of Thomas' brother George.

  The shop on 126 Blackburn Road is still owned by Warburtons and is located near the head office in Bolton.

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