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2022 marks 100 years of baking and making on the site of the first purpose-built Bettys Bakery. To celebrate this unique milestone, we held a special anniversary celebration for our Bakery team and took a look back at how the Bakery’s story started…

Bettys founder, Frederick Belmont, first arrived in England in 1907 having travelled from his home in Switzerland. After several years working as a baker at Swiss-owned confectioners Bonnet & Sons in Bradford, Frederick opened the first Bettys Café in 1919 at 9 Cambridge Crescent, Harrogate. The original Bakery was located in the attic of the original Bettys Harrogate.

Frederick’s unique approach to craftsmanship and attention to detail was a core element of his vision for Bettys from the very beginning and the blueprint for the Bettys Bakery located on Prospect Road reflected this. Whilst the interior of the building was fitted with all the latest new gadgets like electric ovens and steam-powered mixers, the outside was designed to look more like a row of terraced houses to blend in with the surrounding residential area. The style of the building shows Frederick’s flexible thinking to overcome challenges as well as his pioneering and ambitious spirit.

Throughout the following decades, the Bakery thrived as the business grew.  The building was expanded to include a confectionary room, a chocolate department, a dedicated bakery and despatch area, offices, stores and a plant room. The purpose-built bakery allowed Frederick to expand Bettys and open branches in Bradford and in Leeds. And, throughout the twentieth century, the Bakery underwent several extensions and adaptations to keep up with demand.

The new millennium brought the opening of the new Bettys Craft Bakery, just a stone’s throw from the original Bakery. This new building reflects closely both our Swiss and Yorkshire heritage using natural materials with a low pitched Alpine-style roof; a stained glass window depicting wheat sheaves; and a solid arched front door made of native oak. In the very same year of opening, the build won a Yorkshire White Rose Award from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

More recent developments include the opening of Bettys Cookery School and a Research & Development facility which is used by the Bettys Food & Drink Innovation team for both product development and training without interrupting normal Bakery production.

As a business, we have always retained the original vision for our Starbeck site as a ‘food manufacturing park, a place to work, beyond compare.’ Our aim is to create workplaces that combine good design with optimal functionality, enable our people to do their best work in the most effective way and embody the values in ways that all of us can see and connect with, whilst always recognising the important role of nature and being respectful of our environment and surroundings.