THINK of what Crewe and Nantwich are famous for and maybe trains and cheese spring to mind.
But here’s a tasty bit of information - did you know that they are actually home to garlic bread?
Yes, that tasty accompaniment was actually invented by New Primebake, and the garlic bread you buy at the supermarkets is probably produced here in south Cheshire.
The company, which set up in 1988 in Telford before moving to Nantwich in 1994, is the brainchild of managing director Colin Cowling.
“Ironically garlic bread didn’t exist in Italy or France, it was invented in the UK,” said Colin. “Italy had garlic pizzas, but we translated it to a garlic baguette.
“We decided to produce garlic bread because, at the time, we felt that bakery was archaic, it was all about sliced bread.
“Bread has always been exciting in terms of product development as there is so much you can do with it. When it’s fresh, bread is the best product in the world. We thought there was a lot of opportunity in it and it’s proved to be so."
Despite his vision, Colin said it took a while to get the product just how he wanted it.
“When we started it was all by hand, we didn’t have machines. It was very labour intensive and very different,” he said.
“We were ahead of our time all the way through but it was a difficult birth. It took us three years to get the product right. Getting the bread right was the most important aspect.
“There were three of us at first but that quickly turned into 33 and 303 and so on. Our first order was from Gateway. The business started to grow and grow and then we took on Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury’s. As our portfolio grew so did our products. Originally it was all around slices until 1996 when we started craft breads. Flatbreads are now the biggest sellers.
“We’ve grown from zero to £90m turnover and built a market on the back of it. It’s a fantastic market.”
New Primebake, which was bought by food giant Bakkavor in 2006, makes 216 bespoke products for most of the main supermarkets, using 500 ingredients which are sourced from all over the world.
It produces six million garlic breads every week using 70 tonnes of butter, 250 tonnes of flour and six tonnes of garlic puree.
It’s also one of the area’s main employers with 480 staff at its Nantwich site, 350 on the Hall Enterprise Park in Crewe and a further 67 at the distribution centre in Crewe.
With new lines recently added, the company is going from strength to strength.
“Now every time we introduce a new production line or a new product it’s better than before," said Colin. "It’s always been a metaphor for the business – whichever product we make we want to make it better. It’s like Bentley – every time they build a new car it’s better than the last one. It just makes business sense.”