STORY: The story behind Proper Cornish (the clue's in the name)

By Chris Pauling, Managing Director

Back in 1988, three Cornishmen, Phil Ugalde and brothers Chris and Dave Pauling became disillusioned with commercially made so called “Cornish pasties”. They found the market to be driven by price rather than quality so set about bringing authenticity and taste back into the Cornish pasty market – and so “Proper Cornish” was born.

Using the Pauling family recipe handed down through the generations, we started out with a handful of family members making just 100 pasties a day from their kitchen table. Our products quickly became extremely popular locally, with our customers loving the taste – as well as the fact we were using local ingredients, freshly prepared in-house. Today, over 30 years on, this hasn’t changed. Our potatoes are grown just 7 miles away and our swede and onions are grown just 30 miles from the bakery – and we still hand crimp every pasty, usually around 55,000 a day or more. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

As our business grew, so did the need for larger premises, and at one point we occupied 7 separate buildings on the same industrial estate. This added complexity and inefficiencies to our business so we set out on a journey of relocating into one bespoke bakery and it is with great delight that at the end of 2019 our dream of having all our colleagues working under the same roof in our BRC (AA certified) state of the art bakery and adjoining office block was realised. An extremely proud moment indeed for us all.

Our pastry range is very versatile as the fillings can easily be adapted and developed to meet emerging trends.  We have a team of in-house talented Development Chefs who keep themselves up to date with emerging trends and flavour innovations.

Award winning products, from an award winning company are supplied across the UK and beyond either direct or via a well-established wholesale network. Our quality products are sold under the Proper Cornish brand, with a range of branding support available to meet the needs of our customers; we also supply to own label customers.

In 2020, although a challenging year, we were delighted to be crowned Bakery Manufacturer of the Year 2020 at the Baking Industry Awards, and also be a County Winner at The National Bakery Awards. These accolades are testament to the hard working Proper Cornish team."

For more information visit www.propercornish.co.uk