A FAMILY bakery business is celebrating its 30th anniversary this week – along with a string of other family milestones.

Fred Thomas, owner of Fred’s Home Bakery in Albemarle Road, York, turned 60 earlier this year and his wife, Diane, will reach the same age in October. They also celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this month.

Fred has been a baker since he left school. He had an affinity with the craft, for as part of a family of ten he would be sent to the bakery as a child to buy ten loaves of bread.

He said: “I wanted to do it on my own while I was still young.”

He and Diane took over a rundown bakery, then based on Back Lane, and transformed it into a popular family business, eventually moving to its current site on Albemarle Road, which it now owns.

The business has increased takings by 400 per cent since it was established and now employs 15 people, including all the family, with Diane doing the bookkeeping, and their sons, Paul and Andy, and daughter Kay, also working for the business.

This provides a dynamic of both old and new, with Fred the traditional baker and his sons, who have both studied at the Thomas Danby College in Leeds, introducing new skills, such as immaculately decorated wedding cakes.

He said: “It’s a full family affair and my grandson, Alex, who is 13, is starting on Saturday to do a little bit as well. It’s down to family and hard work, I have always been self-employed. People think it’s easy. I’m here at 3.50am every morning and don’t lock up until 5pm.

“We have a lot of good loyal customers at both our shops, in Bishopthorpe and in South Bank.”