We're highlighting the shortlisted bakeries in our competition in the News & Star. Each of the establishments will be featured over ten issues.

Routledges has been nominated by News & Star readers as one of the ten finalists in its 'Best Bakery 2024' award.

The bakery, which has seven different locations across Carlisle, including its newest on Warwick Road which was opened in July 2023, was originally founded in 1917, however, was taken over by business patterns Matthew Harris and Tiago Alves in 2022.

After being informed of their bakery's nomination for the News & Star's 'Best Bakery 2024', Tiago was on hand to express his delight. 

He said: "We are so happy to be nominated for this award. 

 "Since we took over we have tried really hard to stick to the same recipes as well as trying to bring in new products whilst making sure that we are maintaining the quality of our products.

"Quality and consistency of our products is our number one priority and we work really hard to maintain it. 

"It is a really lovely industry to be in when we took over Matthew and I had not been in the bakery industry before but for both of us it was something that we wanted to do even though at first it was a challenge. 

"In the three years since we have taken over, we have learned so much and just tried our best to keep up the quality of the products at Routledges."

Tiago also piled the praise on his hardworking team at Routledges whose dedication to quality has helped maintain the bakery's local popularity. 

He said: "We have been well rewarded with the response to our new products and we have a wonderful team that have been with us along this journey.

"We work together every single day to make sure we give the customers the best products.

"The best reward we can take from this industry is getting the recognition that our hard work deserves."