Our story began in 1953 when Mayo native Pat Higgins set up a small bakery at the back of his house in Granard. From this industrious beginning, Pat The Baker grew to become one of the country’s top bread companies, producing the famous Pat’s Pan (and other products) you see in your local supermarket today.
The late 1970’s and 1980’s saw huge growth in our bread manufacturing business. In 1977, we moved into a larger premises which allowed us to sell more bread to a wider market. Up to this point, we had concentrated on the Midland areas, but then we made the big leap from local bakery to nationwide producer – Pat The Baker bread was soon seen in shops all over Ireland and became a national brand, a position we continue to reinforce to this day.
In 1984 we opened our first depot in Dublin, to cater for the growing capital market. This was later followed by depots in other parts of the country.
In May 1987, we upgraded our Granard bakery and turned it into one of the most up-to-date bakery plants in Europe. We further modernised the plant in 1992 in keeping with international technological trends. During this development phase of the Bakery facilities, we increased our capacity and range of products and expanded our distribution system into all 32 counties in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
In 1996 we moved into a new purpose-built building in Moxham Street, Granard, which now serves as a modern corporate Headquarters.
While we were expanding, we created more and more jobs around the country. Starting with 40 employees in 1980, today we provide employment for over 400 people, through direct employment and self-employed agents.
Pat The Baker currently supplies bread to all counties in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. From our early beginnings of the bakery and distribution centre in Granard, the business grew with further distribution centres being opened countrywide throughout the decades. In May 1998 a depot was opened in Castleisland, Co. Kerry as the business in the area grew to such an extent, that it could no longer be handled by the Limerick depot.
There are now distribution centres in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Kilkenny, Letterkenny, Castleisland, Galway and Armagh. Pat The Baker is one of the main suppliers of bread to all of the major supermarkets in Ireland and we have a major commitment to excellence and quality to all of our customers.
The “So fresh it’s famous” slogan is now part of our corporate logo and has become synonymous with Pat The Baker among our customers at home and with the Irish diaspora abroad. You can even buy our bread in downtown New York. It reflects our philosophy – as we always use the very best ingredients, processes and management techniques to provide our customers with the highest quality bread product.
