In-store bakery and food-to-go specialist Country Choice recently held an event to celebrate its 40th birthday, albeit a year late thanks to the pandemic.
Founded in 1981 by the late Martin Bott, Country Choice was created to supply high street bakers and convenience retailers with a wide range of high quality frozen bakery and pastry products, including bread, dough, cakes, and handheld snacks such as sausage rolls, thereby enabling those businesses to offer consumers a much wider range of products than they would otherwise have been able to. The success of the company led to its acquisition by what was then known as Brake Bros in 1993, and it has continued to grow through increased sales of its core products, as well as the introduction of a range of branded food concepts including its flagship Bake & Bite brand, Flatstone Pizza Co., Hudson’s Hot Dogs, and Stacked sandwich offer.
At the event, a day of business content was followed by a party in the evening attended by current and former staff, at which managing director, Garry Picton, said: "It’s been four years since we last had the chance to get together as a company and so to be able to do so to celebrate the business’s fortieth anniversary is fantastic for everyone. The business continues to evolve and so today is not just about the anniversary – it is also a great chance for colleagues to look at new brands and new NPD, and exchange ideas that will help to drive the business forward in the years to come."
