From meat and potato pies in a terrace kitchen, pie firm hits 100 years old

From small-scale origins in the kitchen of a terraced house in Stoke-on-Trent, a pie maker which exports to more than 20 countries is marking its 100th birthday.

Wrights began with John and Lizzie Wright selling meat and potato pies from their kitchen in the city and grew into what is now a major manufacturer with more than 500 recipes.

The firm supply products to about a third of English football clubs as well as making sandwiches, cookies and doughnuts.

Helen Bowyer, their commercial director, said: "It's very rare you get the opportunity to work with a brand that has so much heritage and that means so much in the local community as well as at a national level.

"We started a hundred years ago and we've evolved into larger business; we're one of the UK's largest bakery businesses, but to have such grounded roots in such a fantastic area of the country is so special."

Although manufacturing has moved over the years to Crewe, she said "you can't take Wrights out of Stoke-on-Trent.

"When you look at what we've done for people to understand what that means and the interaction with our customers and what the brand means to them - someone's always got an anecdote," she added.

"I've lived in the area for 20 years but anyone you talk to, they've always got something [to say] when you say you work for Wrights."

The firm, owned by The Compleat Food Group, manufactures products for a lot of other brands, she said, but she can detect a Wrights sausage roll in a shop "at a thousand paces".

To mark the anniversary, the firm has collaborated with TV and Staffordshire chef Thom Bateman to create a creamy chicken, leek and bacon pie.

The business is donating 10 pence from every sale to Macmillan Cancer Research as part of their centenary efforts.

The company has also joined forces with another well-known local firm, Moorland Pottery, who will be making a commemorative mug while some Wrights staff will also be doing a skydive - or as they call it, a "pie dive" - to raise money for local charities.

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