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Welcome to Myerson Solicitor's Q&A with MOST Bakery, where we delve into the story behind this beloved bakery in Altrincham.
Myerson's Hospitality and Leisure team sat down with Matt and Suze from MOST Bakery to discuss their specialities, community engagement, and future plans.
1. How long has your bakery been in business, and what inspired you to start it in Altrincham?
We have just celebrated our first birthday at the bakery!
We live locally and are so lucky that Altrincham is such a bustling community of fantastic independent eateries - we feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to join them.
2. How did you launch the businesses when you first started?
Before opening the bricks and mortar bakery, Matt ran a micro-bakery and baking school from our home kitchen.
He delivered sourdough loaves and soup by bike within a one-mile radius of our home and ran weekly baking classes.
It’s hard to imagine now, but during lockdown, flour and bread were hard to get hold of, and the delivery side of the business really took off, which was fortunate as we were unable to run classes.
When the bakery on Cross Street became available, we leapt at the chance to scale the business.
Suze joined the business as co-director, making the leap from practising as a solicitor and working as a news editor for a legal industry magazine.
We were joined by a very talented pastry chef and a couple of baristas.
Over the last year, we have grown to a team of ten, with four bread bakers and pastry chefs and a full front-of-house team, including a sandwich chef.
3. What types of baked goods do you specialise in, and which are most popular among your customers?
One of our key differentiators is that we make everything by hand, from scratch, every day that we’re open, right here in Altrincham!
We make a range of sourdough breads and classic tin loaves, baguettes and specialist breads, such as challah and Japanese milk bread.
Our classic white sourdough is a firm favourite.
One of our pastry chefs specialises in viennoiserie, which includes pastry classics such as croissants and pain au chocolat.
Our almond croissants are very popular, as are our cruffins – a muffin-shaped treat made from croissant and filled with crème patissiere.
Our other pastry chef is a patisserie whizz and makes beautiful patisserie, as well as amazing cakes, brownies and blondies.
Her egg custard tart has been described as “genre-defining”, and her Basque cheesecake is also extremely popular!
4. Do you use locally sourced ingredients or work with any local farmers or suppliers in the area?
Absolutely! Our flour comes from Nelstrops, a flour mill based in Stockport, which has been milling for over two hundred years and is still family owned – the Nelstrops live in the Altrincham area too!
Our coffee comes from Kickback, who roast in Macclesfield.
Our homemade salt beef comes from brisket supplied by Turtons in Hale, and our smoked salmon comes from The Manchester Smokehouse.
We even use spent grain from Timperley-based microbrewer, Libatory for our malthouse sourdough and stock a range of his beers and ales.
Our wine comes from Reserve wines, we stock kimchi from local business Loving Foods, and raw local honey produced from a hive in Timperley… the list goes on!
We feel it is so important to support the local economy wherever possible.
5. What challenges did you face and overcome when starting your businesses?
We have had a lot of unique challenges over the last year - the tail-end of a pandemic, soaring energy prices and food costs, which led to a cost-of-living crisis!
Times are tough for everyone at the moment, which makes us especially grateful for the continued support of our very loyal customers.
6. How do you engage with your customers and community?
One of the main ways we do this is over the counter – we are so proud to serve the community in which we live ourselves.
The whole team makes a real effort to get to know our customers, their likes and dislikes, their kids, and their dogs!
Baking classes are another great opportunity to get to know people.
We try to attend local events whenever possible and get involved with activities arranged by the Altrincham Bid.
We also try to support local schools and other community fund-raising efforts whenever possible.
7. What are your future plans for the bakery, such as expanding the menu, opening new locations, or launching an online store?
We change our menus seasonally, keeping the classics but adding a few seasonal twists.
Our summer menu has been going down very well – we’ve kept favourites such as our salt beef bagel and have introduced new additions such as pulled tarragon chicken, chickpea, roasted summer vegetable baguettes, and Caprese bagels.
We’ve also launched a salad bar and regularly change the selection of freshly made-from-scratch salads available – perfect for those who enjoy fresh, healthy food and think life’s too short for a meal deal!
We’ve recently brought back our baking classes, and our monthly supper clubs are still going down a storm.
Developing a website has taken a back burner, but we hope to launch this in time for Christmas! Watch this space for Deliveroo.
8. Do you have any tips for other small businesses starting out?
Starting your own business can be hugely daunting, but someone advised us that every venture requires a leap of faith, and it’s true – you just have to go for it and give it your best shot!
Reach out to other independent local business owners – the local business community in Altrincham is wonderfully supportive, and people are often willing to share their experiences and help each other out.