Real Bread Boosts Sales to GBP4.25m for Two Magpies Bakery

British group Two Magpies Bakery has revealed a GBP3.5m sales increase in just 16 months, with sales rocketing from GBP670,000 to GBP4.25m, boosted by soaring interest in real bread.

With Real Bread Week kicking off on Monday, the group of family-owned bakeries has expanded over the last three years, from just one outlet in Southwold to four bakeries across Suffolk and Norfolk, with branches in Aldeburgh, Southwold, and Darsham, as well as a brand new bakery and café in Norwich that opened in February.

“There is a huge growth in interest for specialty breads, wholesome foods, different flavor combinations, and unique bakes. People love real bread and we see that interest continuing to grow across all our sites. There are very few bakeries doing what we do. We are constantly adapting to trends – for example, we’ve introduced more vegan and gluten-free bakes – whilst in Darsham we run sourdough masterclasses so people can learn the techniques for themselves. People want more flavor and real ingredients and that’s what we’re providing,” explained Rebecca Bishop, co-owner of Two Magpies Bakery with husband, Steve Magnall.

“We’ve developed a serious management team for growth, which we’re managing with cash flow and we have lots more plans for expansion. There’s so much interest in real bread and the response to our outlets is phenomenal, the demand is there, and we want to fill it,” explains Steve Magnall.

Two Magpies Bakery is a member of the Campaign for Real Bread, which aims to ‘make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet’ and the bakery is renowned for its award-winning sourdough, which is made using a live culture and locally-milled flour; it also contains no artificial additives, processing aids or ‘improvers’ and adheres to the Real Bread campaign loaf. “Our core range of long-fermented sourdough breads includes: ‘Magpie Sourdough’ with white, wholemeal and rye flours, ‘East Coast Rye’ with white wheat flour, wholegrain rye flour, and malted cut rye grains and our ‘Spelt sourdough’ with chia and flax seeds’ with weekly specials such as ‘Malted triple Chocolate Sourdough’, ‘Spelt Sourdough with Walnut and Honey’ and ‘Fermented Barley Blackshore Stout Sourdough’ made with local brewery Adnams Blackshore stout and local company Hodmedods fermented barley grains,” added Rebecca.

During Real Bread Week (held Month day-day), Two Magpies Bakery will be hosting a sourdough masterclass at its Darsham bakery school. It can also provide sourdough culture so customers can try making their own masterpieces at home from scratch.