Flintshire bakery celebrates 10 years serving the West Coast Main Line

• Avanti West Coast supplier The Pudding Compartment marks 10-year anniversary catering for journeys across the West Coast Main Line
  
• Over seven million baked treats provided to customers over the last decade by Flint-based bakery
  
• Long-standing relationship highlights operator’s commitment to championing small businesses along its route

A catering supplier based in North Wales has celebrated its 10-year anniversary serving customers across the West Coast Main Line.

The Pudding Compartment, a small bakery in Flint overlooking the North Wales stretch of the network, started creating products for intercity services over a decade ago. Since then, over seven million individual items made by the bakery have been enjoyed by customers travelling between London and North Wales, Scotland and the north west.

Working alongside Avanti West Coast since 2019, the business celebrated this week with some bespoke bakes made for the long-distance operator.

Starting out on their journey in Abergele, The Pudding Compartment consisted of just three employees, catering to predominantly small businesses in North Wales. As a result of their popularity amongst customers travelling across the West Coast Main Line, the team of employees has since grown to 10 times its size.

The bakery’s most sought after offering on Avanti West Coast’s menu is its shortbread, which has evolved over the last decade, changing flavour to shape to keep up with current trends.

Its popularity has been solely responsible for the employment of staff, as each biscuit is required to be carefully wrapped by hand before it makes its journey between North Wales and the major UK cities the operator serves.

Alongside regular menu items, The Pudding Compartment has created bespoke bakes for the operator over the years. These include Uncle Joe’s Mint Ball brownie – the collaborative project between the bakery, Uncle Joe’s (a traditional sweet company based in Wigan) and Avanti West Coast Train Manager, Helen May – who came up with the recipe. The brownie was originally planned as a limited-edition treat, however it was so popular that it became a permanent feature on the operator’s First Class menu and is still being made in the Flintshire bakery today.

Avanti’s link to The Pudding Compartment highlights its commitment to championing small businesses local to the West Coast Main Line. The operator has a key focus on sourcing products for its First Class menu and onboard shop through suppliers close to its network – helping to reduce its carbon footprint and shine a light on the smaller producers that are at the heart of the communities it serves.

Steve West, Director of the Pudding Compartment, said: “It has been an honour to serve the customers of the West Coast Main Line for the last decade. Being able to see Avanti’s trains pass by the window of our bakery knowing there are customers onboard enjoying our products is something that still makes me and the rest of the team smile every day.

“There’s no doubt that the relationship we have with Avanti has added towards the success of our business. We receive some lovely feedback from customers all over the UK and the majority of that has come from people who have tried our products whilst travelling along the West Coast. We hope that customers continue to enjoy our products in the years to come, and we’re excited to see where our combined ideas will take us next!”

Rob Taylor, Food and Beverage Manager at Avanti West Coast, said: “It’s been a pleasure collaborating with Steve and The Pudding Compartment team for so many years. They capture everything we love about the small businesses we work with – a close-knit team who are proud of their Welsh heritage, and who don’t take the success of their products on our services for granted.

“We’re already looking forward to some of the collaborative projects we have coming up in the future that we know our customers will love too!”

ENDS

You can read the original Uncle Joe's Mint Ball brownie story here.