Cherry on the cake for specialist baker Butt Foods on winning award

David Williams of Butt Foods and David Ratcliffe of Brakes

A quarter of a century of supplying a leading food wholesaler with bread has been topped for specialist baker Butt Foods after the company was awarded the title of Desserts and Bakery Supplier of the Year at the Brakes Supplier Conference.

The Nottingham-based company, which supplies flatbread, naans, sub rolls and other speciality breads to the food service sector, received the award from Brakes Group for a range of reasons, including 100% level of supply, stock and logistics innovation, market leading insight and new product development, as well as being praised for having a helpful team.

“Pardon the pun, but it really was the cherry on the cake to receive the award from Brakes, a wholesale company that we have had links with for almost the entire history of Butt Foods and who source from more than 2,000 suppliers,” said Butt Foods managing director David Williams.

“Our company was founded in 1990, and the following year began supplying naan breads to Brakes – dealing with the original founding Brake family. The business relationship has continued since then, as both companies have developed, and we are thrilled to have been named the Desserts and Bakery Supplier of the Year at the Brakes Supplier Conference.”

Family owned Butt Foods, which prides itself on keeping abreast of trends and developing new products to satisfy consumer demand in a fast-paced industry, produces hand-finished frozen sweet and savoury bakery items, used by a range of outlets from restaurants and hotels to pubs and cafés.  

Brakes is the UK’s biggest food distributor, and also supplies to Ireland, France and Sweden. The group sources and supplies a range of more than 50,000 fresh, ambient, chilled and frozen foods, including more than 4,000 own-brand products and a wide range of non-foods.

Butt Foods is one of more than 2,000 suppliers from around the world that the group deals with.

For more information about Butt Foods, visit www.buttfoods.co.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham based pr company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

Milestone celebration for Nottingham bakery Butt Foods

Left to right, Mazhar Butt, Abdul Jabbar Khan and David Williams

Specialist baker Butt Foods has marked 25 years in business with a celebration for staff, as well as the launch of a new brand.

The Nottingham-based business, which supplies a range of naan breads, flatbreads and sub rolls to the food service sector across the UK, has unveiled a new Baked Earth brand. It has also launched a new website which offers serving ideas for chefs and a special section for operators to subscribe to which will give insights into the latest bakery and food trends.

Butt Foods was founded by Mazhar Butt, who opened one of Nottingham’s first Asian restaurants in the 1970s. The idea for a bakery came after a customer failed to show up to collect a special order of naan breads and the young Mazhar found himself with more freshly-baked naan than he knew what to do with.

After wrapping them and putting them on the counter of his shop, they sold ‘like hot cakes’ and the next day customers were back for more after hearing just how good the naan were. 

More than 25 years later and having introduced authentic frozen naan to the foodservice market in 1991, Butt Foods is now one of the largest naan bread suppliers in Europe and also produces a range of other speciality breads from its modern bakery at The Midway on Lenton Industrial Estate. 

To mark the milestone, Mazhar Butt and his senior team hosted a party for staff at the Mogal-E-Azam restaurant in Nottingham, where Mazhar thanked the team and paid tribute to those who had helped him with investment in the early days of the business.

Managing director David Williams, who joined Butt Foods in January 1991, just after it launched, said: “It was a great evening and the chance to reflect on how Butt Foods has grown from small beginnings into one of the UK’s premier suppliers of flatbreads and other bakery products.

“The company owes much to the loyalty and skills of our team, and it was very fitting that Butt Foods’ 25^th birthday should be celebrated with a party for employees. We’re also delighted to unveil our latest brand of craft-baked flatbreads, Baked Earth, which are pretty special, and our new website which offers hints and tips on ways to use our breads, as well as an area for chefs to subscribe to for free and where they will receive key information about trends in the food service sector.”

The award-winning bakery remains family owned and prides itself on keeping abreast of trends and developing new products to satisfy consumer demand in a fast-paced industry, supplying hand-finished frozen sweet and savoury products.

Among the guests at the 25^th birthday celebrations was production manager Abdul Jabbar Khan – the longest serving employee after David Williams - who joined the business in 1992. Many other members of the team have been with the company for several years too, added David.

Each employee was given an engraved pen as a gift to mark the occasion.

For more information about Butt Foods, visit www.buttfoods.co.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham based PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk  

National distribution network for bakery innovators Butt Foods Ltd

Bakery innovators Butt Foods Ltd now has a national distribution network that runs from Land’s End to John O’Groats.


The Nottingham-based company, which produces a range of different bakery products including its new Big Softy sub roll range, Breadies bread bowls and Mazhar ethnic breads, has joined forces with a number of distribution wholesalers.

The final links in the chain were added after Butt Foods Ltd reported big success at this year’s Food and Drink Expo.

“We had a great Food and Drink Expo 2010, with tremendous interest in our existing products and also in our ability to innovate and create new products for the market,” said Ray Belcher, sales executive at Butt Foods Ltd.

“Demand for our new Big Softy sub roll range has grown at an extremely fast pace, reflecting the popularity of soft sub rolls with consumers. It’s shown 50% quarter on quarter growth. We are delighted that the Big Softy sub roll range and our other products are now available to virtually all food service operators, wherever they are in the UK.”

Butt Foods Ltd, which distributes through a national network of wholesale distributors to many thousands of pubs, sandwich bars, cafés, universities and other outlets, offers its Big Softy sub roll range in boxes of 30, with each box containing six bags of five fully-baked, frozen sub rolls to cater for operators of all sizes.

Baked in foot-long moulds and also available in 8 inch sizes, the Big Softy sub roll is available in five flavours - plain white, plain brown, semolina topped white, honey and oats topped brown, and cheese and herb topped white.

Major distributors of Butts Foods products are: JJ Foodservice, Hopwells Foodservice, Castell Howell Foods, Windsor Foodservice Ltd, Lomond Foods, Pioneer Foodservice, Hunts Foodservice, Phillip Dennis Foodservice, Lynas Foodservice, Ewood Foods, Holdsworth Foods, Reids Foodservice Ltd and Leacroft Foodservice Ltd.

Butt Foods Ltd was founded in 1990 and has won a number of awards for its products, including one at IFE07 (the International Food and Drink Event) and a Home Grown Cereals Authority Enterprise Award for its bread bowl in 2005.

For more information visit http://www.buttfoods.co.uk/