Frank’s Luxury Biscuits are a family run bakery, still using a recipe that is four generations old. The bakery is based in Herefordshire, and provides a nationwide delivery service of Biscuits and Cakes, and a variety of other products. The owners of the company, Frank and Lesley Cornthwaite love to share their story, of how the Oatie first originated.
Mum's original oat biscuit recipe, baked in our farmhouse kitchen, was a family favourite, and always baked on a Thursday. There were always several tins in the larder full of different biscuits and cakes regularly dipped into by the family and friends. The Oatie biscuit became a favourite recipe that Frank used to bake for friends and family alike. It was particularly a wow factor, when he started to ask Lesley out. When they married the Oatie continued to be baked for friends and work colleagues, to raise money for missionaries in other countries, through their local church. In the summer of 2002 the wife of a colleague suggested to Frank and Lesley that they seriously think about marketing the biscuit as it was so popular.
The business was first established in December 2002, when Frank took early retirement, and began baking biscuits in the home kitchen and sold them in local Within twelve months even the shared premises were not big enough, and at that point they moved to their own unit on the same estate. At the same time the business began to establish itself as one that could deliver their products nationwide.
It was about this time April 2004 that Lesley found herself working longer hours at the bakery and developing the first range of cakes. It was at this point that Lesley too gave up her job to work full time in the business. Within six months the business had increased to such a degree that Frank, and his wife Lesley, were forced to begin looking for alternative premises. However, they did not have to spend any time looking, as they were offered a share of an industrial kitchen less than half a mile from their home.
We currently supply over 500 hundred outlets in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands. The bulk of these consist of Farm Shops, Delicatessens and Garden Restaurants. We also have regular orders from a Danish distributor who services both Denmark and Sweden. In May 2010 we received our first order to take our goods into Kuwait. Then in October 2012 we started exporting to Germany.