WELCOME

This website, when complete, will complement the Westwood Works website by recording the histories of the rest of the businesses which made up the Baker Perkins Group. It records the development of the key facilities, group subsidiaries and associated companies around the world that, at some time in its history, formed part of what came to be the Baker Perkins Group – from the origins of the two Founders to the merger with APV in 1987 and the closure of Westwood Works in 1992.

The two websites attempt to show what it was like to work in what was by any measure a unique organisation; to describe something of the culture that engendered what was, in the words of many of its employees, a "family"; and to provide some insight into what it took to develop state of the art process equipment and sell it successfully into virtually every country in the world.

Such detail might prove to be useful to indicate to non-Baker Perkins people and, perhaps, future generations that the vast, high-quality range of packaged foodstuffs and other commodities available on supermarket shelves is there because someone developed a process – and then a machine or plant to deliver that process and then package it - for every one of the types of product on offer. The record also indicates that the path to success was not always smooth.

The opportunity is also taken to give some idea of what selling overseas really entailed. That obtaining orders in far-flung corners of the world was not simply a case of jumping on a plane, having a gin and tonic with a customer, signing an order and flying home.

This website is liberally sprinkled with links that allow easy navigation between sections and to locate relevant information contained in the Westwood Works Website.

To discover what life was like at Baker Perkins' Westwood Works from 1904 to 1992 see Westwood Works.net

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