PRINT and packaging business Bakers has announced the appointment of Harry and Tom Baker as directors, formally bringing the third generation of the family into the company’s leadership team.
Harry becomes commercial director, while Tom takes on the role of operations director. Bakers said both have been taking on more responsibility over the past few years and have gradually become more involved in the decisions shaping the firm.
Bakers was founded by Roy and Marian Baker in 1973 and is today led by their son, MD Steve Baker.
“We’ve never been a business that gets too hung up on job titles, but becoming a director does carry a different level of responsibility,” Steve Baker explained. “Harry and Tom have both been doing more and more for some time, so this isn’t a case of suddenly giving them a title and expecting them to grow into it. They’ve already been growing into the roles.
“I felt a difference as soon as we made it official. Some of the weight shifted. They’re going to have their own ideas, they’ll challenge things and they’ll want to push the business in their own way. That’s healthy and it’s what we need.”
Harry has spent much of the past few years closely involved with BakPac, Bakers’ flexible packaging division. As commercial director, his view now broadens across Baker Labels, Baker Materials, BakPac and Sportstiks.
He said, “Dad has always brought us up with the idea that you earn the role first. You don’t get handed the medal and then run the race. You do the work, create some value and prove that you can take the responsibility on. In a way, the title catches up with what we’ve already been doing. The difference now is that my role becomes wider. I’ve been very BakPac-focused, so I’m looking forward to getting more involved across the whole business and challenging some of the things we’ve always done simply because we’ve always done them.”
Tom’s new role, meanwhile, focuses on the operational side of the business: production, processes, systems, training, standards and the people responsible for delivering them.
He added, “The business is at a different scale now. You can run a company of 30 people in a very different way to a company of 120-plus people. What I want to bring is a bit more structure and clarity without losing the things that make Bakers feel like Bakers. I don’t want us to become a big company that feels corporate. I want us to become a bigger company that still feels like the small company. A big part of that is people. I’d like someone joining us to be able to see a proper path through the business – operator, team leader, supervisor, management – and know there are opportunities here if they want them.”
The appointments come as Bakers prepares to reveal details of Operation Next Gen, a multi-million-pound investment programme designed to expand the company’s manufacturing footprint and capacity.
