Cambridge Cluster

Image via WikipediaDriving down to stay with my cousins, owners of Doble Quality Foods – suppliers to the Catering Trade in Cornwall and South Devon – I always look forward to my first pasty from the St Agnes bakery.  Tasty, very tasty as they say and so are their butter buns.

Whilst St Agnes Bakery supplies the locals in St Agnes, Rowe’s of Penryn has been baking since 1949 and supply Doble Quality Foods and many others with a range of products.  Rowe’s has a good website and tells of how the the miners used to hold the pastie by the crust side so not to put their dirty hands on their lunch.  The problem office workers have with pasties is the crumbs getting into the computer’s keyboard – no shaking get them out!

“But the growth really began after Bill’s marriage to Phyllis Wallace in 1963.The combination of his baking and her selling skills and drive led to many more shops in neighbouring towns during the 1960s and 70s.”  But if Phyllis was so important to the growth of the business why is there only an obituary about Bill on the website?  It is all a bit like the Cambridge Cluster with the emphasis on the technology and not the key skill of selling!

I wonder if Phyllis owned any shares in the business or was a director?  The world has changed a bit since those days but fortunately for us the Cornish pastie is still the best food for a bracing day on the Cornish coast and thank goodness we do not have to go down the mines to enjoy one!  They did not have a business plan resource in those days.