The History of Grace's Bakery

Thursday, 20 May 2021 12:48

Sarah outside Ryde shop in 1997 and right, in 2017

Ray and Carole Redrup opened Grace's Bakery on Ryde High Street in 1997. It was a big gamble as they sold their own house to transform the old Duffetts shop into a bakery cafe.

On opening day they had to borrow money from a friend so they had enough money for a float in the till.

Carole took up front of house in the shop, while Ray worked in the tiny bakehouse, with some help from Ray's parents. They crossed their fingers and hoped it would work.

At the time, the couple's four children were just 17, 13 and three (twin daughters). Often Ray would have to sleep on a camp bed at work instead of travelling home to their rented house in Totland.

Ray had been baking since the age of 15. Something which incredibly started off as a bet! Ray and his school friend Jimmy had a bet on who could get a job first. They stood outside the milk depot and asked the staff if they needed a hand. Jimmy got the job, so Ray carried on walking down the road and went into a local bakers, Rose's Fresh Bake and Mr Rose gave him a job cleaning and greasing the tins. He learned a lot from Mr Rose and was inspired to go to bakery college after leaving school. Mr Rose even turned up to watch Ray give presentations at college, something that Ray remembers fondly.

Ray with son Daniel in South Africa

Ray met Carole at just 15 years old, and they got married at the age of 18. After having their first son, Daniel, they moved to South Africa where Ray worked as a bakery manager for Pick and Pay. He was soon head-hunted by an international company. Working as a bakery specialist he travelled all over the country to help new bakeries start up and solve problems for established ones. They soon had their second child (David) in South Africa.

After a few years out there Ray got into a 'disagreement' with someone trying to steal his car outside his house. He lost the argument when the gentlemen decided to shoot him! He survived, but they decided it was time for the family to go back home to the UK.

Once home, Ray started up a bakery business of his own. He ended up having bakeries around Essex and West London. Ray's mother suggested that he move to the Isle of Wight. Ray's family was from the Island but moved to Essex. So, Ray took a trip down to Ryde and sat in town observing shoppers' habits. He was fortunate to meet Fred Ward, the owner of Duffets. So, they sold their house in Essex, ferried the kids down to the Island and used the money to start Grace's! Around four years after setting up shop in Ryde, the family were opening up their second shop in Newport Pyle Street.

"I still have a very distinct memory of sitting on the floor playing with tiles watching my dad stick them to the walls," said daughter Sarah. "You can still see the tiny burgundy tiles in our Newport Shop!"

As the business grew, Ray convinced the owner of the building in Ryde, Fred Ward, to let them expand the bake house further back. The building had been in Fred's family for a long time and used to be a working mill. They still have lots of the old equipment today in their offices and the pully systems from the third floor down are still visible.

Fred would go and sit in the bakery at the end of the day and chat to the twins while they waited for their mum to finish cleaning up.

"We'd often run up to his house and leave him a loaf of bread on the doorstep. After he sadly passed away my parents bought the building and found all of the things he had been collecting over the years including really old vans and cars!"

Ray named the bakery after his nan, Grace Taylor, a woman who he has lots of fond memories of, from his childhood. She spent her life in service, working in large houses in London cleaning and waiting on the owners.

Grace's namesake, Grace Taylor

"She didn't have an easy life and experienced a lot of hardships. So, Dad wanted to remember her by naming the bakery after her," said Sarah. "After all, we are in service to the people of the Isle of Wight too."

Today, three generations of family members work at Grace's Bakery. Ray and Carole have been joined by their sons, Daniel (Operations Director) and David (Sales Director), their daughter Jodie (Human Resources) and her husband Jacob (Trainee Operations Manager/Baker) and daughter Sarah (Marketing Manager). Ray's brothers Derek (Head Baker) and Mark (Packer), niece, Kirsty and grandson, Dylan.

Their longest serving staff member, Collette is a familiar face for a lot of people in Ryde and has been managing the Ryde Shop for over 20 years.

She's watched the four children grow up. "I remember her sitting me and Jodie down in the cafe after school and getting us to fold napkins and cake boxes to keep up busy. And when we turned 13 she started training us on Saturdays to work in the shop."

The family outside the newest shop on Newport High Street

Grace's Bakery now has six shops across the Island, over 60 staff members and over 60 wholesale customers. They supply St Mary's Hospital, Wightlink, Co-ops, Central Stores and lots of wonderful local businesses. And they deliver to Islander's homes Island-wide, five days a week.

They started a home delivery service in March 2020 after lots of regular customers asked for help getting their essential shopping during lockdown. Within a week they had made an online shop and website from scratch, despite not having a proper website before. Ray and Carole's son Daniel studied computer science at university and put his skills to good use.

Grace's has had people ordering from as far away as Canada and Australia to get gifts sent to their family on the Island.

"The best feeling is when someone opens the door to you, you tell them it's a gift from their son/daughter/ grandchild/brother/sister etc and their face lights up!"

For these efforts, Grace's won the Customer Service Award at the 2020 Bakery Industry Awards: "We've never even been nominated before...so to have won a whole category was amazing! We also won Best COVID-19 Response Award at the 2020 National Best Small Shops Awards."

The History of Grace's Bakery

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