Botham's of Whitby building new bakery at Enterprise Way site

An extension of their existing Enterprise Way site, on Whitby Business park, the new bakery will see current production at Skinner Street bakehouse permanently move up to the new site, and be baking, within the year.

Jonathan Botham, Managing Director and great-grandson of Elizabeth Botham said it was "an ambitious and exciting adventure" but one also born out of necessity.

“In the 1800’s, Botham’s was built as just the shop and tea rooms frontage on Skinner Street; very similar to how you see them today.

"My family then started to develop behind the property to include a bakehouse where we currently make our bread and cakes.

"The bakery continued to evolve in stages, and, as such, the bakehouse is now on multiple levels connected by a network of stairs, ramps and an aging central lift – which is crucial to production - the opportunity to streamline production and to be all on one level will be a game-changer!

“The new bakery at Enterprise Way will enable us to radically change production, advance with technology and replace vital machinery without the ‘how-on-earth-do-we-get-that-up-the-stairs’ moments."

The move will also see a reduction in large vehicle deliveries to the narrow and one-way Skinner Street.

This move - which will help Botham's of Whitby bake long into the future - has been in planning with the family for a number of years.

And the family stresses that the move is essential.

Lois Borrett, Director and great-great granddaughter of Elizabeth Botham, said: “It’s not about growing the business to be even bigger, it’s about enterprising to secure a future for the business as a whole.

"We are a family business for families, by lots of definitions: our shops and tea rooms are enjoyed by families near and far; our mail order hampers are delivered to friends and families

nationwide and the pandemic reminded us about how important these deliveries can be with so many of our Care Packages being sent.

"We supply lots of other local, family-run businesses and outsource work locally where possible; we employ local people and, as such, we often have times when we have several generations of one local family working for us at one time.

"So, we feel that Botham’s is one of many integral elements of this wonderful town and we hope to keep it that way for years to come.”

The original Skinner Street shop and tea room will remain in place, with the only change being a daily delivery of fresh bakery produce by Botham's of Whitby vans in the same way that it currently supplies its other four shops and tea rooms.

So, for the next year, the family bakers will be juggling baking hats with hard hats, but this is a familiar process.

In 2000, the current generations of family bakers directed the build of Enterprise Way Bakery, which saw the wrapped goods production move out of Skinner Street bakehouse up to Enterprise Way.

Jonathan added: “We’ve never looked back after developing Enterprise Way and, like a double-edged sword, although we are grateful for the experience this has given us, we also know

how much of a challenge the new build will be – I’m sure we will fuel our busy days well.

"And, like generations of our family before, who also faced lots of challenges along the way, we will always endeavour to keep baking.”