Lathams of Broughton bakery goes into liquidation
A famous bakery which has stood the test of time for over 50 years is set for liquidation.
A notice in The Gazette – the official public record for business administration notices states that Lathams of Broughton, located at Caxton Road, Fulwood, has filed for insolvency and is set to go into liquidation.
The news will no doubt come as a shock to staff and customers of the firm which employs more than 80 people and has been trading since the 1970s.
Gwen Latham, who, with her husband Bill, founded Lathams of Broughton passed away in April, aged 94, from heart failure.
Bill also passed away in September 2023 at the age of 93.
Her delicious fresh products have made many customers happy over the years who described her as the Mary Berry of Lancashire. She started out making desserts in her family kitchen. As demand grew they bought a local shop in Northway, Broughton village to give them space to supply local restaurants, hotels and pubs with an ever increasing range of desserts.
All the products were made using fresh ingredients. Local farmers supplied fresh cream, milk and eggs and everything was handmade, just like in your own kitchen.
Customers discovered this small shop tucked away making desserts and cakes and in the early days many passed them off as their own!
A dedicated team of staff made memorable cakes and desserts such as Coffee Renoir, Raspberry Pavlova and Lemon Cream Crunch and when a customer couldn’t decide which sponge cake to buy, Lynn, the shop manager created Mrs Lathams Selection Cake.
Mrs Latham developed the iconic Coffee Renoir - a choux pastry ring filled with Lathams homemade crème patisserie covered with freshly whipped cream and topped with Lathams own coffee icing sprinkled with almonds.
As the Coffee Renoir wasn’t suitable for freezing, customers would queue out of the door to collect their favourite dessert particularly on Christmas Eve.
It has since been copied many times by other businesses.
Many loyal customers over the years followed Lathams to their new shop on Caxton Road in Fulwood when they moved in 1996. The bigger premises enabled Lathams to supply local supermarket Booths, which held the same ethos, local food made using the best ingredients which Booths customers valued. The family sold the firm in 2019 - with Jonathan Barton now listed as the sole director of the business.
A spokesperson for the family said that they were ‘saddened to hear’ the news.
They added: “Sadly both Mr and Mrs Latham have passed away in the last year and would have been saddened to hear of its demise, but happy that so many customers and staff have fond memories of their products.” A virtual meeting of creditors is to be held at on Friday, August 23, at 11.30am for the purpose of creditors to decide on the nomination of a liquidator.