[C]umbrian bakers Traybakes Limited (Traybakes), is supplying Wimbledon with authentic, hand-made traybakes for the third successive year. On each occasion, their order has increased, with over 40,000 traybakes lovingly prepared by hand for this tournament already – and more to bake.
Wimbledon looks for hero products which demonstrate the message of ‘Best of British’, finest and freshest ingredients. Traybakes has become a favourite supplier for the last three years because they are a traditional British baker, making everything by hand in small batches and using quality ingredients like Belgian chocolate and Lyle’s Golden Syrup.
The Wimbledon Tournament is Europe’s largest annual sporting catering operation which means Traybakes has had to adapt, enabling them to continue servicing existing national contracts with the flexibility to cope with large, seasonal production. This year they are supplying a range of six traybakes to Wimbledon:
- Caramel Shortbread – (staff favourite)
- Cinder Road – (staff close second)
- Biscuit Tiffin
- Butter Flapjack
- Granola
- Honeycomb Crunch (the people’s favourite)
Traybakes owner and Managing Director Justine Caruthers said “Holding court at Wimbledon is a fantastic showcase for our product and the customer feedback has been amazing. For consumers, I think it’s the fact that they are incredibly versatile. In terms of texture and flavour there’s one for everybody. Wimbledon is a very nostalgic place, and our traybakes have a real sense of nostalgia too. People grew up with them and they remind us of our childhood when Mums tended to bake more often.
“Our whole approach appeals to the Wimbledon buying team. Authenticity and using ingredients from the larder are very important to us. We’ve a very dedicated team that consists mainly of women who are self-taught, and because we are a small team, we are nimble and multi skilled – that creates flexibility in production. We still bake in small batches by hand because it maintains product integrity, but we have introduced time saving machinery for cutting and packaging.”
Demand for single slice traybakes is growing. Food To Go (FTG) is worth more than £20bn in the UK and growing and 51% of food to go is now snacks*.
Our eating habits have changed and the fourth meal – now a snack, often focuses on a coffee and cake break. In Sweden FIKA is a custom – it’s a coffee and cake break that’s gained momentum in the UK.
Traybakes started producing single slice traybakes in 2006 to focus on the travel market. Justine explained “You will find our brand in many service stations, rail stations and coffee chains up and down the country. As an individual slice, they’re very portable and that’s one of the reasons they do so well at Wimbledon.”
Last year the tournament saw attendance of 473,372 across 13 days – during that time visitors ate 10,000 scones and consumed 29,000 bottles of bubbly. They also consumed almost 40,000 Traybake slices – across the three years that’s more than 120,000 Traybakes. Visitors who love the slice of Wimbledon can now buy the range on line at Amazon if they can’t find it in a local retailer – ensuring they can get a slice with their coffee in the future.
This year Traybakes is developing #bakepoint – a light hearted social media campaign that follows the traybakes from production to centre court at Wimbledon. Justine said baking is a serious business, but we like to have fun and have involved our team in our campaign too – they’re not all tennis fans, but some will watch it. I’m afraid I’m crowd surfing to see what they’re snacking on – and always hoping to spot one of our traybakes.”
Traybakes is SALSA accredited which guarantees its customers high standards of food safety and full traceability of ingredients through to its finished products. For further information, visit www.Traybakes.com or call 01768 899 888.
*MCA Food to Go Report 2017.