| History of The Cake Store
Ken Slatter navigated the business through the best two decades for small family bakers, the 60’s and 70’s.
During this period the business had two production sites at Catford and Sydenham, four shops, substantial wholesale and could not keep up with demand.
However the late 70’s began to see the rise of supermarkets, that began to target small family run butchers, bakers and fishmongers by undercutting their prices.
The supermarkets in our areas were fully saturated by the early 90’s and the business was loosing it’s customers to the convenience of one-stop shopping in out of town superstores.
|  |  | Ken’s sons, Kevin and Tim Slatter were keen to be involved in the business. Kevin studied at the National Bakery School and joined the business in 1984. Tim studied at Westminster Catering College and joined the busininess in 1986. During the next 10 years they built the business wholesale operations by supplying Waitrose, Hampton Court and Kew Gardens. In the 90's they began to scale down the retail shops and cosolidate the companies production sites. In the year 2000, Kevin and Tim realised that they had to change course and come up with some new ideas that the supermarkets could not compete with successfully. | |  | | Kevin says “It was the inspirational cake designs of Steven Howard, which I knew would put us on our journey into specialising in celebration cakes.” Steve has since become the Companies Creative Director and his input into making great looking cakes and running the production has gained him respect throughout the business. |  | Tim Slatter immediately set about creating a website and internet presence and has since become the Director of Finance and Technology.
Kevin Slatter's involvement in the business from such a young age, then training at the National Bakery School, has given him all the tools necessary to take overall charge of the business and now successfully runs The Cake Store in London. The website launched in October 2001. |  |
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