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News
2023 Autumn Conference
BSB 2023 Autumn Conference report by Sylvia Macdonald
Growing Your Business was the theme at the British Society of Baking (BSB) October Autumn Conference at the Ardencote Hotel, Warwickshire.
Delegates listened to inspiring ideas and personal testimonies from owners and MDs, monitored trends with the help of big business, kept abreast of technical developments and learned vital business turnaround tips.
An excellent array of six speakers introduced by BSB chairman Stephen Ville, gave up valuable time to address delegates. Profits go to support students and apprentices, a selection of whom were invited to attend conference with their tutor.
Session chairs were Alex Waugh, outgoing director general of UK Flour Millers and Mike Tully CEO of Bako.
High-level speakers included Tesco’s Category Buying Managers for In Store Bakery who shared valuable insights about their forward vision, product innovation and ways of working with suppliers. Amanda Hart and Nicola Jamieson job share, leading the very successful bakery buying strategy of Britain’s leading supermarket. Delegates learned the in’s and out’s of Tesco’s in-store bakery buying and vital points necessary to contribute to joint supplier/supermarket success.
Britain’s largest cake-maker, Finsbury Foods’ director Simon Staddon, together with group head of category and insight Ben Kirsby, both spoke on innovation, insight and cake trends currently responsible for growing business. They revealed how changes in tastes, health perceptions and the economic climate are influencing cake presentation, content and format across all categories.
Craft and online award-winning Mimi’s Bakehouse of Edinburgh demonstrated really imaginative ideas on relationship building, themed events, employee training and making customers welcome, plus some different eye-catching products. Owner Michelle Phillips and daughter Ashley Harley, inspired delegates with their compassionate but very savvy entrepreneurship.
Bertie Matthews MD of miller Matthews Cotswold Flour literally brought his 200-year old family business back from the brink together with his father Paul. Now they count Tesco and Waitrose among customers, as well as a host of artisan businesses and home bakers. An innovative range of flours, together with NPD for an increasing online community plus an ethical attitude towards regenerative farming, is leading Matthews’ inspiring aims for business growth.
A business turnaround expert and interim director who has notched up notable successes in both bakery and FMCG’s, Mark Cooper, of Executive Solutions, gave highly practical and useful advice on strategies to build business growth. He also discerns individual skills and enables companies and senior managers to be open and enthusiastic about assessing and revising their vision then coping with the changes required to grow their business.
Conference’s technical paper looked at advances in C Cell technology by Calibre Control’s MD, Paul Cliffe. Initially British, but now truly global, delegates learned how new advances are further enabling quality control and consistency throughout a wide range of breads, ingredients and baked products via digital imaging. This shows the reaction of different ingredients alongside time factors, production methods and baking mediums with digital imaging helping to produce the desired ‘perfect’ and consistent end product for volumes large and small.
BSB would like to thank all speakers, both chairs and all delegates for contributing to the success of the Autumn 23 conference and all the valuable networking.
Brief presentations were made to BSB secretary Sharon Byrne for 20 years’ service and Alex Waugh, outgoing director general of UK Flour Millers, for the many informative talks he has delivered to BSB.
The next BSB conference is 17/18 April 2024 at The Cotswold Hotel, Gloucestershire.
Please put the Date and Venue in your diary now!
For Spring we have an exciting new venue and added optional golf/spa afternoon. This will be followed by the usual BSB networking drinks reception and dinner, then next day conference.
Please SAVE THE DATE NOW!
17 APRIL 2024 – BSB GOLF/SPA Afternoon then DRINKS\DINNER\ENTERTAINER
18 APRIL 2024 – BSB CONFERENCE. COFFEE/LUNCH.
Book one or all. For further details email: bsb@freeuk.com.
2023 Spring Conference
BSB 2023 Spring Conference report by Sylvia Macdonald
The British Society of Baking’s Spring conference was one of the best attended for many years.
Held on 19 April at Tythe Barn, Bicester, approximately 100 leading industry figures were in attendance across the whole spectrum of bakery from ingredients to equipment and finished products. Networking was much to the fore throughout the breaks. The theme was one of overcoming challenges and defining forward strategy. Some speakers do not want their talks reported in detail.
Presentations kicked off with the scientific: Campden BRI’s Dr Phil Voysey’s explaining the path to reducing mould and increasing shelf life. While science can be baffling to anyone non-technical, Phil ensured everyone understood key factors affecting microbial growth. He defined the differences between moulds and yeasts and also defined sources of contamination. He then moved onto the causes and control of rope. Finally, he discussed specific bacteria of concern – all things bakers need to be aware of in avoiding, controlling and eliminating mould. Phil runs courses at Campden BRI, which demonstrate his talk in greater detail.
Grupo Bimbo’s Innovations and Strategy Director, Kate Haskins, took delegates through the company’s thinking, explaining in a lively and informative way how the company works and how it plans ahead.
Entrepreneurship was much to the fore in Bako ‘s CEO Mike Tully’s presentation about completely turning around Bako’s profits from £100 thou to £ 6.2 million. In a motivating talk he divulged his own forward-looking strategy and leadership style.
On the technical front, Neil Olly, who’s completed 32 years at Tesco, revealed how suppliers should communicate with the supermarket, plus the sort of information and actions required by the supermarket, the problems that ‘kept him awake at night’ and how, being open, efficient and transparent, can lead to a good and often lasting collaboration with the supermarket.
Tesco’s Bakery Category Specialist, John Lamper, gave a forward-looking talk on how Tesco works in partnership with suppliers to deliver what he defines as ‘operational excellence’ across all ISB channels, from equipment to ingredients to bake-off. His remit is to ensure quality across on shelf across 1,500 Express Outlets, 600 large format stores with scratch baking in 450 outlets. He looked in detail at the digital evolution: how QR codes and content, developed with suppliers, give access to support material. This in turn drives quality and capability for both instore and field colleagues. He gave helpful examples of three case studies, then summarised the collaborative approach that needs to be achieved with suppliers of equipment, ingredients and bake-off, in order to fulfil his demanding brief of ‘operational excellence’.
The next generation was also represented not only by the attendance of students from UCB with two tutors but also in the next two presentations. The first portrayed excellence in milling: seeing and hearing the progress made by Wright’s world-beating, innovative flour mill in Harlow, Essex. A video and entertaining talks followed the new mill through inception to completion, with joint presentations from MD David Wright and son James, commercial director.
David revealed the history of the family company, which began in 1867 and how as a boy his duties included litter picking but it was clear how under his strategy the mill and the range of products has greatly increased in size and diversified hugely in the number of flours and mixes supplied both to trade and retail. Son James took delegates through the extremely modern, environmentally conscious, world-beating, new milling facilities, the third site in the company’s operation.
BSB Conference ended on a controversial talk by a former Student Baker of the Year, Sophie Carey, now Bakery Development Manager at Matthews Cotswold Flour. She decried the efforts of communication between employers and students regarding recruitment and industry opportunities for bakery students and apprentices. There are several key ways it could improve, she suggested, including: assigning each trainee mentors, having one industry committee working towards one goal with the support of all baking organisations, plus asking for more feedback from students and trainees. If bakery wants to incentivise students, recruit and keep them, it needs to try much harder, she suggested.
Delegate feedback to the BSB conference and speakers was excellent and networking was much to the fore, defining this competitive industry that is also a ‘community’.
Thank you to everyone to spoke and attended!
The next BSB conference is 11 October dinner, conference 12 October. The Ardencote Hotel, Warks.
2022 CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
Chairman’s Report
Chairman’s Report 12th October, 2022
We continued with Zoom committee meetings for 2021 – 2022. Sadly, we could not hold the 2021 BSB Golf Day or the Autumn Conference due to Covid.
We did however have a lively 2021 Zoom AGM which was combined with a webinar type presentation by Devon Petrie, National Bakery School, South Bank University on the use insects to increase the protein content of baked products. Devon covered the topic in great detail, including the financial and legal aspects of producing baked products with insects and as an ingredient. There were also tasting samples. A video of Devon’s presentation and the 2021 AGM is available as a download on the BSB website archives.
The 2022 Spring Conference was held at the Tythe Barn, Bicester on Wednesday 6th April, 2022, our first conference since autumn 2019 due to Covid! Both the conference attendance and presentations were excellent.
The conference attendance was higher than normal because a) members were happy to be attending a conference again and b) because of the presentations and discussions on the Ukraine crisis and its likely adverse effect on wheat availability worldwide. Speaker Alex Waugh of UK Flour Millers, formerly NABIM, started his presentation by saying that he will be able to talk of the effect of the crisis on wheat supply, price and quality but let’s not forget this Crisis is being caused by a war and the human cost of that will be awful!
An informal conference dinner was held at the Chesterton Hotel on the Tuesday evening and was enjoyed by speakers, guests and BSB Executive committee members and delegates, the attendance being higher than usual due to the additional Ukraine crisis delegates.
The Spring BSB Conference presentations lived up to their promise to provide advice, strategy, and vision and a forum for discussion. Peter Baker did a fantastic job as Session Chairman for all the presentations.
09.30 – 09.40 Opening of Conference by BSB Chairman Mark Young, including the presentation of the BSB chain of office to Mark by Past Chairman Richard Hazeldine and the presentation of Richard’s Past Chairman’s Badge by Mark, which could not previously be done due to Covid restrictions
What Do Today’s Young Bakers Need? by Megan Roberts and Will Leet, David Wood, Bakery
The Wrights Journey to Compleat by Ian Dobbie
Are Bakeries Heading Towards Full Automation? by Steve Merritt, EPP
Panel Discussion on the effect of the Ukraine crisis on UK Milling and Baking
Practice Essential Skills: Motivation, Leadership, Growth by David Garman
The Next Generation – Moving Business on by Talia and Sean Sarafilovic, Stephen’s Bakery
PDF copies of the speakers PowerPoint presentations can be found on the 2022 spring conference page of the BSB website.
2022 BSB Golf Day
The 2022 BSB Golf Day was held at the Forest of Arden Golf & Country Club, Meriden, Warwickshire on Tuesday 31st May 2022. The cost of the day included coffee and bacon rolls on arrival, a token for the driving range, 18 holes of golf over the Arden championship golf course in the familiar shotgun start format, and afterwards a three-course dinner followed by the prize giving ceremony. There were several non-golfers who attended for the dinner only.
Long-time golf day organizer Keith Houliston planned two years ago to celebrate 30 continuous years of the event with a special prize, but Covid intervened! The special prize was therefore awarded this year instead.
Keith was pleased to pay tribute to Chairman Mark’s brother Simon, who did a fantastic job as the after-dinner speaker and presenter of prizes. He said that Simon was very entertaining and a talented impressionist. We also saved the normal fee for a professional comedian against Simon’s attendance and hotel cost, including a good quality bottle of champagne. The results of the Golf Day will be posted on the Golf Day page of the website.
Mark Young, BSB Chairman
2021 CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
Chairman’s Report
This is my third year as Chairman and has like the other two flown by, sadly as you are all aware we have been unable to undertake any of our usual activities. We had hoped to be able to hold our autumn conference, but once it became clear that we were unable to do so with any certainty we took swift and decisive action to mitigate any costs to the society and postponed the event until Autumn 2022.
At our AGM last year, I mentioned that we were investigating ways in which we could continue promote learning within the baking industry. One of the ways we looked at was via webinars. Immediately following our AGM we held our first webinar – Adam Cohen of ITS told us “how to do business better – now and after Covid!”
Following the success of our first webinar, we have managed to host a series of webinars during the course of the last year.
Our second was with Mintel, Emma Clifford outlined “How Covid-19 is changing the future of bread and baked goods”
We then had two webinars provided by Synergy Flavours, Adam Byrne, gave a presentation on “Reformulating bakery products to reduce calories”. This was followed by Natalie Sheil presenting “Key drivers for Vegan growth.”
Our 5th webinar was from John Ruddock, of Cooplands who shared some of “the key lessons learnt from the pandemic and how this has shaped their plans for the future.” and then Jane Tyler of Cybake walked us through the “the changing landscape of IT in the bakery sector, including a look at the application of artificial intelligence.”
Our final webinar was in September when Fraser Tait of Food Tech Systems gave us useful guidance on the Natasha’s Law & Allergen Labelling Update that came into effect last Friday.
However I am pleased to say that we are pushing ahead with plans for our Spring Conference which will be held at the Tythe Barn near Bicester in April next year. I am really looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible there.
The conferences were not the only casualty of the pandemic, sadly we were unable to hold our annual golf day this year. Keith Houliston is well underway with plans to bounce back in 2022. Thank you Keith.
Predictably I have been unable to represent the society at any of the usual bakery events. Although we have maintained our links with different organisations through invitations to our webinars.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our supporters, you will have seen their logos being displayed ahead of the proceedings today. The BSB is a not for profit organisation dedicated to promoting learning within the baking industry. Their generosity is very much appreciated, and their support enables us to achieve this aim.
The committee has been working tirelessly in the background. We now have more regular but shorter meetings via Zoom. Going forward we will look to introduce a couple of face to face committee meetings each year.
Behind the scenes a lot of work has been going on. You may well have noticed changes to the website. This is very much a work in progress we are giving the website a makeover and bring it up to date. I would like to thank Natalie for taking this on.
One of the challenges facing the society has been succession planning. At one stage we were having to look at outsourcing our conference organisation. We have made significant steps forwards. We have recruited new committee members who have been very active in the Society and we now are back to organising webinars & conferences inhouse. Following this AGM we will welcome Daren Roots to the committee.
I am also pleased to say that the position of Chairman looks to be covered for the next few years.
We did have a set back with our plan for a replacement Treasurer, in that David Hall had to resign from the committee for personal reasons. I would like to thank David for the support and work he did for the BSB. I am pleased to say that later in the meeting we will be looking to appoint John Gelley as honorary treasurer.
Finally I would like to thank the committee for their support not just during the last year, but also over the last three years. We have faced some very challenging times, we have had to make some difficult decisions and at times we have had some robust discussions. But above all we have remained a well-functioning committee and going forward you can be assured that the BSB is in good hands.
Richard Hazeldine
5th October 2021
New British Society of Baking Honorary Members
Honorary Membership of the BSB is not given lightly, the recipient having to have given outstanding service. Until the 2018 Autumn conference our only current Honorary Member was Jean Grieves. Over the years Jean gave many superb presentations at BSB conferences. From 1996 she did sterling service on the Executive Committee and as Conference Chairman and was BSB Chairman in 1997/98. Her final conference as Conference Chairman was the Golden Jubilee conference in 2006, which was a tremendous success. The BSB Executive committee felt that the following members merited the honour of joining Jean as Honorary Members of the British Society of Baking.
David Roberts joined the BSB in 1971 and contributed greatly to the advancement of the Society in the 1970s and 80s from his work on various committees and as BSB Chairman in 1981 – 82. He also contributed to the success of the Golden Jubilee conference in 2006 as a key speaker at the conference dinner. David continues to support our conferences to this day and embodies everything that is good about being a member of the BSB.
Jim Brown Joined the BSB in 1974 and over the next 20 years served on and was Chairman of, various committees, and was Publication Secretary for 13 years. He was BSB Chairman in 1988 – 89.
Having cut back on his BSB work from 1994, he agreed to become BSB Treasurer in 2007, due sadly to the terminal illness with cancer of the then Treasurer Mike Byrd, who is sorely missed. From his previous BSB experience, Jim soon became active in other areas of the BSB, becoming conference coordinator, editor of the conference proceedings, updater of the BSB website and conference photographer.
Neil Jackson joined the BSB in 1997 and became a member 
of the Executive Committee in 2000. He was BSB Chairman from 2004 – 2006, including the 50th anniversary Golden Jubilee Conference, which he organised exceptionally well with the Conference Chairman Jean Grieves and the then Executive Committee. It was a memorable occasion for all who attended. Neil has supported our conferences, the Executive committee and our activities over many years. He only stepped down from the Executive committee 4 years ago but still attends BSB conferences. Neil celebrated his 80th birthday this year but unfortunately he could not attend the autumn conference due to an important hospital appointment.
Further BSB Honorary Member Elected at the 2019 Spring Conference
There was a fourth BSB member who should have received the Honorary Membership award at the autumn conference but was unable to attend due to his many business and industry commitments. He is Paul Heygate, our 
longest serving active member, having joined the society on 1st June 1967, some 52 years ago. Paul served on the Executive and other committees for several years and was BSB Chairman in 1999 – 2001. He was also the session chairman for our 60th Anniversary conference. Paul is a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Bakers and is still very active in the family baking and milling businesses. It is also his birthday today! It gives me great pleasure to present Paul Heygate with his BSB Honorary Membership award.