The “original’ Ma Baker was Louisa Lund who ran a small bakery in the Lancashire mill town of Bolton in the early 1900’s. Her son, Norman, after a career in the Grenadier Guards as well as the police forces of the UK, Cyprus and Nyasaland eventually ended up in Pietermaritzburg, Natal where he started several successful catering, hotel and fast food businesses. Norman used what he had learned from his mother to provide his various businesses with a range of delicious pies and pastries.
When Norman retired in the mid 1980’s, his son Wayne, a Chartered Accountant, was given the task of selling up Normans' businesses. Whilst doing so, he was approached by a large contract caterer to supply pies to the local university and other establishments. Marcel Briner (who previously worked for Norman and is a Swiss trained chef) together with Wayne started wholesaling pies and Ma Baker, the pie manufacturer, was born in 1987. Wayne gave up his accounting career, moved to Pietermaritzburg, and the business has grown steadily since then.
In 1995, Ma Baker amalgamated with Country Home Bakers of Durban and Country Homes’ managing director, Russell Moore, became MD of the combined entity which kept the Ma Baker name.
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