Meet the Producers -
Ross Bakery

For any newcomers, who are you and what do you do?

Ross Bakery, a wholesale bakery. 

When did you establish your business?

November 2018.

What inspired you to begin?

We were running the Alpine Cafe at the time and were buying the most delicious bap from a Polish Bakery called the Golden Bakery. When the owner told us he was selling his equipment it was the start of this crazy idea that we could learn how to make bread to supply ourselves and then hopefully other people too. 

How has your business grown since then?

I started off baking early morning by myself then jumping in the van and doing the deliveries. Thankfully those long days of doing everything are behind us as we're now a team of 10 amazing bakers, pickers and delivery drivers all working together to produce your bread. 

Where are you based and what does that community mean to you?

We're based in Ballasalla. Our first ever customer was a cafe across the road from us and we still supply them. The community support here on the IOM is amazing. The regular messages of support from our customers really sustain us when we're busy and exhausted and the feedback we get when something is not quite right is lovely as it shows that people care. 

What does the Isle of Man Food & Drink Festival mean to you?

We've been doing the festival since 2015 first as the Alpine then as the bakery. It's an absolutely wonderful way to talk with new and existing customers. Although the IOM is a relatively small community, there's always someone new to meet and chat with. 

Which other local producer(s) are you most looking forward to seeing this year?

That's like asking me to choose between the kids. All of them!

What’s on the horizon for your business?

In the spirit of me making things I want to eat at the end of a shift, I really want to make the perfect pain au chocolat. Pastry is hard in a very small and very hot bakery though! More realistic is us looking to produce more of the staples like an affordable tin loaf to fill in some of the gap left by the closure of Ramsey Bakery and to help secure the future of our flour mill. 

What is your signature dish/product?

We love making challah, a slowly fermented dough with bags of flavour but our signature product would probably be the Pastel de Nata, affectionately known as custard crack to some.