BUSINESS PROFILE

Name: Forfars Bakers

Business nature: Bakers and confectioners (manufacturers and retailers)

Date established: 1936

Location: Home Farm Business Centre, Brighton, with 21 retail outlets in Sussex, 12 in Brighton and Hove

Number of employees: 220

Annual turnover: £6.2 million

The Cutress family have been baking bread in Sussex for hundreds of years, staying in business throughout civil war and world wars, depression and recession.

But now they face one of their sternest tests yet.

Although the family, the owners of the Forfars bakery chain, have been baking and milling since the time of Oliver Cromwell, Charles Cutress didn't open their first shop in Brighton until the end of the 19th century.

This was quickly followed by two more and the business continued to grow until 1936 when Charles' grandson, also called Charles, took over Forfars from the Forfar family.

The expansion continued and the business now has 20 retail outlets throughout Sussex and supplies over 50 wholesale customers, including the University of Sussex and Sussex County Cricket Club.

It is now run by Tim Cutress, the third generation to be in charge of Forfars and the seventh generation of Cutress bakers.

He is faced with steering the business through one of its most turbulent times.

On one hand there is the recession, which is hitting consumer spending for every retailer in the country.

But perhaps the greatest threat is the aggressive expansion plans of rival bakery Greggs.

The Newcastle-based chain moved in about four years ago and has already opened several outlets across Sussex, including one just three doors down from the Forfars shop in London Road, Brighton.

Mr Cutress, 56, said: “Baking has traditionally been a friendly industry, though that is changing now. You have got national chains like Greggs who open up near independent shops to try to put them out of business.

“I have friends around the country who have been suffering for ages because of Greggs. They have been deliberately targeted our shops.”

As a national brand, Greggs has the economies of scale and financial clout to make competing very difficult but Mr Cutress believes Forfars can offer a personal touch that its larger rival cannot.

He said: “Going into a small shop should be like going into your local pub. You need that feel-good factor.

“We use a mystery shopper which is expensive but it only takes one rotten apple in the shop to ruin the good work of everyone else.

“It is very important that everyone is aware that their next customer could be the mystery shopper.”

Mr Cutress focuses on staying local to Sussex and is particularly proud to employ more than 200 people across the county.

The bakery also uses local suppliers whenever possible.

Mr Cutress said: “We don't go out of Sussex because food miles are important to us. Everything is coming out the oven between midnight and 6am and going straight to our shops.”

The emphasis on wholesome, locally-produced food has been further underlined by a new brand – Forfars Fresh – and Mr Cutress has also introduced seven “2U” snack vans which deliver to businesses across the county.

He admits, however, that it has been difficult to gauge the success of these measure because of the recession, adding: “We don't know how much worse off we would have been had we not made the changes.”

Whatever happens, however, Mr Cutress and Forfars will not be stand by and allow Greggs to walk all over them.

He said: “When I was at school in Brighton the town had 300 bakeries and we had seven. Now if you look inside the Yellow Pages we have got 13 but there only about 28 others left.

“We have managed to evolve the business over the years so we cannot sit back and feel sorry for ourselves now.”

Mr Cutress did not join the family business until he was 24 and had already ran his own bakery.

He has a son and two daughters while his brother Matthew, Forfars' product designer, has three daughters.

They are all still in education and haven't yet decided to join the firm, though Mr Cutress said he would be delighted if a fourth generation were to join the fight against rival chains and the recession.

He said: “I would prefer to wait until they are about 25 or 26 so they can bring some experience with them.

“I'd very much like at least one of them to join though. If Charles Cutress could keep the business going from 1939 to 1945, while two of his sons were away fighting in the war, then what is a recession?”