A lost Liverpool bakery made 'cakes to die for' and employed generations in the city for over 70 years.
If you grew up in Merseyside, you've most likely been to a Sayers store and tried one of their cakes, sandwiches, soups or other bakery products. And although the brand has been well established across the North West for decades, its humble beginnings are rooted here in Liverpool.
Back in 1912, Fred and Lylian Sayer started selling baked products from a basement kitchen on Prescot Road, Old Swan - and the rest is history. Production later moved to County Road, Walton in 1922 before increasing demand saw Sayers move to a larger bakery in Aintree Road, Bootle in 1925.
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By the early 1930s, another expansion saw Sayers moved to a purpose-built baker in Lorenzo Drive, Norris Green. A key production facility, the site supplied shops throughout Merseyside and the North West and many will remember walking past the site and seeing the bold Sayers logo through the years.
Over the next seven decades, Sayers in Norris Green employed generations. Many will remember what it was like to work inside the bakery, creating some of the sweet and savoury treats the brand is still known for today. Different departments would see cakes decorated, bread travel to ovens, mince pies made and more.
Howard H Hughes recently shared a number of photos and what the lost site once looked like to our Liverpool memories and history Facebook page, which saw a number of people share their memories of Sayers in Norris Green. Angela Ellis said: " Worked in the office above the bakery from the sixties till 1973, shame it had to go."
Susan Pearson commented: "They made the best strawberry tarts yummy and the cream they sold in tubs." Gary Robbo wrote: "Their breaded ham with a Vienna loaf & butter was our Saturday treat (if we'd been good!). They did a delicious Mandarin Cream Roll, which was fresh cream and mandarins in a sponge roll - we loved it."
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Catherine Selves posted: "When I moved to Kent my mum always brought me a box of their mince pies! Can’t be beaten!." And Norman Rivers said: "What a shame best bakers around, their cakes were something to die for."
Did you work at Sayers in Norris Green? Let us know in the comments section.
In 1996, the ECHO also reported how passengers of the QE2 got a taste of Liverpool when it docked in the city in the shape of a giant cake, modelled on the Liver Building created by Sayers. Phil Eastwood and Peter Roberts spent 84 hours making the 100lb cake, decorating the two and a half foot high masterpiece at the firm’s Norris Green HQ.
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Sayers remained a family run business until 1977 when it was sold to United Biscuits and later in 1990 was bought by Warburtons. Six years later, in 1996, Warburtons sold its bakers stores to Lyndale Foods and the following year the family was expanded further when the Annes Shops chain of shops were bought from Roberts Bakery in 1997.
But by the noughties, Sayers' life in Norris Green came to an end. The Liverpool ECHO previously reported how bosses axed 183 jobs at Lorenzo Drive in 2006, blaming rising costs.
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In 2008, the Lorenzo Drive site was its last bakery in the city, closing its doors for good in June that same year. A number of images, unearthed from our archives, show workers outside Sayers Norris Green factory after it went into liquidation, and a lock being put on the entrance gate after closure, bringing an end to Sayers’ 95 year relationship with Liverpool.
Photos taken by Howard H Hughes also show the last months of the site. In 2007, you can see what the bakers looked like after closure, with its yellow and orange Sayers logo still standing out on the white and brick building.
In October 2008, the site was badly damaged by a suspected arson attack, before the site was later demolished and became home to an Aldi store, which still operates today. According to its website, today Sayers The Bakers is the biggest independent retail baker in the North West with over 150 shops throughout the region.
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