SALSA RECOGNITION FOR IAN AND JAN’S BAKERY BUSINESS
(September 2008)

The few remaining traditional family bakeries in the North East have a constant fight on their hands to withstand fierce competition from supermarkets. But Ian and Jan Thomson, whose artisan bakery in Stamfordham Road, Westerhope Village, Newcastle, has been going since 1956, continue to survive against all the odds and are always on the lookout for new ways to move the business forward.

Their latest achievement, being one of the first food producers in the region to be awarded a SALSA (Safe and Local Supplier Approval) certificate, will greatly help their efforts to increase sales to larger retailers and food service buyers. SALSA, which was launched last year, is a rigorous food safety certification scheme administered by the Institute of Food and Science Technology supported by DEFRA and the Food Standards Agency. It has been welcomed by many of the UK’s leading food buyers, particularly those who seek to buy locally, as it reassures them about the conditions in which the food is produced.

The Thomsons have always trained their own staff to the highest standards, but getting a SALSA certificate, says Jan, “proves to those who make the buying decisions that we are actually doing what we say we are doing, and doing it safely.”

Sandy Duncan, general manager of Northumbria Larder, the lead partner in the North East England Food and Drink Group, praised the standards practised by the company over many years. “Thomsons are widely known as among the best artisan bakers to be found anywhere in the country. Their already excellent reputation can only be further enhanced by the award of the SALSA certificate,” she said.

Including Ian and Jan, Thomsons employ 16 people, most of whom have been with the company for many years. Their oldest employee is 70-year-old John Campbell, who came back after retirement to drive the firm’s delivery van once a week and act as holiday cover, and the youngest – 16-year-old Jack Lambert, a modern apprentice who recently left Walbottle Campus Technology College to learn to be a confectioner. He works on fresh cream cakes and chocolate cake mixes under the watchful eye of Debra Gibbon, an experienced confectioner, whose speciality is wedding and celebration cakes. Debra, who started with the bakery on work experience from college, then joined the firm 13 years ago, is married to bakery manager Dean Gibbon. The longest-serving staff member is Eileen Morris, the shop manager, who has been with Thomsons for 19 years. Nearly all the staff live within walking distance of the bakery which was opened by John and Florence Thomson, Ian’s parents, over 50 years ago.

Ian Thomson is a second generation master baker who takes great pride in his work. He works mostly nightshifts at present, but later this month he will be giving up work temporarily to go into hospital for a major knee operation. “The pain has been really bad for years, but somehow he has kept going,” says Jan, who looks after staff, accounts, administration and marketing. She was working in a solicitor’s office in Newcastle and training for a legal career when she met and married Ian and started to help out the family business.

Baking daily, the shop at 385 Stamfordham Road is stocked with a range of breads, flatties and morning goods, scones, pies, pasties, sausages rolls, traybakes, biscuits and fresh cream cakes, plus sandwiches and wraps made fresh every day.

The rising costs of ingredients, particularly dried fruit and flour, has made life difficult for bakers, and Thomsons are no exception. “We were forced to increase prices across the board in August last year and de-list some of our products. We thought we had no choice,” said Jan, who is particularly critical of some supermarket groups who use bread products as a loss leader. “They entice people into their stores with special offers but at the same time they get their money back by putting up prices on other products. It makes it hard for artisan bakers like us, so we have to compete by making better and more innovative products. It’s a constant struggle but we pride ourselves on the quality of our goods and try to be adaptable and creative. Our satisfaction comes from happy customers,” she added.

Thomsons’ bakery not only supplies its own shop but customers in an area stretching south to Durham, east to Whitley Bay, west to Ponteland, and north as far as Morpeth and Bedlington. Their products are on sale at the National Trust farm shops and tea rooms at Gibside and Wallington, and they supply sandwich shops and delis in Jesmond and Heaton as well as city centre gastro pubs and restaurants.

Their best known product, introduced in the late 1980’s and still on sale today, is Newcastle Brown Ale Cob – “combining the legendary Newcastle Brown Ale with the skills of a Geordie Master Baker. This is the unique taste of the North East,” it states on the label.