Humble start to Holland's pies

1:44pm Thursday 17th April 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

HOLLAND'S has been a great Lancashire tradition since 1851 - ever since the firm's modest beginnings in a small confectioner's shop in Haslingden.

Holland's customers may have changed over the last 157 years, but the company's ethos is still firmly based on the traditional values of quality and flavour which were first rooted in its modest start in that long-ago shop, then run by a Mr Whittaker and his stepdaughter Sarah.

Business boomed in those early years, so to help cope with demand, Mr Whittaker took on another confectioner, a young man by the name of Richard Holland.

Energetic and enthusiastic, Richard took to the business like a duck to water and, after marrying Sarah at the age of 21, took over when his father-in-law retired, changing the company name to Holland's.

Holland's remained a family business, with Richard and Sarah's eldest son Walter, introduced to the bakery at a very early age.

Two years' later, on his father's retirement, Walter bought out the business and continued the success story, relocating several times to larger premises.

In those early years, customers were, by and large, very local, with deliveries taken out by horse and cart. But, always quick to keep up with changing times, Holland's acquired its first motorised transport in the 1920s. The company eventually bought a disused cotton mill at Baxenden, swapped the looms for ovens and, in 1936, embarked on a new era.

Holland's has remained on the Manchester Road site ever since, becoming a major employer and contributor to the local economy.

Walter's sons Frank and Harold succeeded to the business and renamed it Walter Holland and Sons Ltd.

By then Holland's pieces were a firm favourite with the fish and chip shop trade, with 20 vans taking deliveries to outlets the length and breadth of Lancashire - retailing for the princely sum of 3d each.

After the Second World War, ownership has changed many times. Today, it is part of Northern Foods, one of the big manufacturing groups, which has enabled further expansion.