New building is next chapter for bakery business SALT Bakehouse Stroud
Summary
A family bakery based in Stroud will be opening its new headquarters next week (September 2), after six years of hard work and setbacks. SALT Bakehouse started out 10 years ago as a wholesale business. The family had previously run another business in Cheltenham – the Bakery Sandwich Company.
Details
Dom Salter , who runs the business with mum Annette and sister Anneliese, said: “We were looking for somewhere to have as a base. We spent the last few years saving to buy rather than rent, then this building came up. It’s an old mill and needed a lot of work.” The company will bake on site at the new headquarters at 28 Slad Road.
Customers will be able to buy directly from the bakery and sit down for a coffee and cake. Dom continued: “We wanted an outlet where people can come and see where the bread is made and buy directly from us.
It’s not exactly a cafe – it’s like a brewery with a tap room.” The new bakery will open Wednesday to Saturday until Christmas, when the team will take a bit of time out to reevaluate how it will work in the long term. SALT Bakehouse started out selling bread to pubs, restaurants and cafes. When Covid hit, the company instantly lost nearly all of its business.
So it transformed its delivery vans into mobile shops, selling bread in local villages. Dom said: “We did that all through Covid. It made the company boom, with far more people becoming aware of us.
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We were so busy trying to bake enough! “After that, SALT Bakehouse never went back to wholesale. It still operates the vans – visiting 12 local villages a week, selling from village halls and pub car parks.” The company also has a small shop at 9 Union Street, Stroud.
The shop and the SALT vans will continue to trade once the new HQ is open. Dom concluded: “We’ve been planning this for many years. It’s been a long journey with planning disasters and setbacks like the window company going bust.
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The shop and the SALT vans will continue to trade once the new HQ is open. Dom concluded: “We’ve been planning this for many years. It’s been a long journey with planning disasters and setbacks like the window company going bust.
It feels momentous to finally be opening.”
Report source: Punchline Gloucester