Shire Foods started out in 1970 with eight workers packed into what was basically a shed, using one van to deliver the pies. The first pie order came from the old Rolls Royce factory canteen.

After steady growth we needed more room. By the end of the 80s in 1992 we moved to a purpose built bakery. It was after our pies went on sale in football grounds that things really started taking off. Then we invented the Chicken Balti Pie and the trend just accelerated. We had created a pie so moreish that it is now the number one half-time snack at stadiums up and down the land.

Private label manufacturing for major retailers had become, and still is, a significant part of the business and by 2004 it was clear we had to move to somewhere even bigger – a brand new bakery in Leamington Spa. There are now around 100 of us there, making and baking 25 million pies, pasties and sausage rolls every year and supplying them to supermarkets, wholesalers, football clubs, fish and chip shops, bakeries and more. It's the story of a British manufacturer successfully producing quality products that combine tradition with innovation.