Bakery born in shed during pandemic now booming

What started as a side hustle soon became a full time job, he left Warburtons in the summer of 2023.

A man who began making bread in his shed during the pandemic has seen his pastime grow into a full-time business.

Sam Oldham, who runs Hive Bakehouse in Westhoughton near Bolton, went against the grain and set up a business when many were closing down.

The former account manager for Warburtons said he "was not a fan" of queuing at supermarkets so decided to have a go at baking his own bread in 2021, and then began selling out of his shed in 2022.

"I was pushing the patience of my neighbours pretty far I did it for a year. Basically on Saturdays people would come round to my garden and buy bread from my shed," he said.

The former account manager for Warburtons said he "was not a fan" of queuing at supermarkets so decided to take a bash at baking his own bread,

What started as a side hustle soon became a full-time job, and he left Warburtons in the summer of 2023.

"Initially I did question it, why would you come to someone's garden to buy bread?" he said.

"I decided I needed to make that leap. I took the do-or-die decision of going full-time and luckily it's gone from strength to strength.

"It's paid the bills - that's the first priority - but it's growing and it keeps growing."

He now works in a commercial building in Westhoughton Industrial Estate. He said there was a great food scene in the area and customers were drawn in by the word of mouth or the smell of baking croissants.

"I started out learning how to make croissants. I had an old 1960s manual dough-cranker, and that's how I started laminating my croissant dough.

"I started experimenting with different butters and flours. You can really tell the difference.

"In the early days it was really dense and heavy. Now we use French flour and Scottish butter, everything's hand-laminated. The smell is what draws everyone, but we're immune to it now.

"Even social media-wise now we're not as strong as other businesses, but we've been blessed with word-of-mouth."