Our journey

There´s nothing I enjoy more than a great conversation with like-minded individuals, and this journey started with a late night conversation over dinner with friends, which went along the following lines: 

”How come after hundreds of years of development, now in the 21st Century, we aren´t able to produce decent bread?”

Good question, I thought.

We travel at high speeds, split the atom, search the worldwide web and man landed on the moon decades ago. Why, then, do we find it so difficult to produce good bread? After all, this is something that many of us eat every day. I like a challenge and this inspired me to set out on a mission with my friends, to produce the very best, wholesome bread in my native home of Sweden.

Together with my good friend Christer, we opened the first bakery café, called Olof Viktors in a traditional Swedish Skånegård and installed a wood-fired stone oven which bakes the bread in a traditional way. 

Our marketing research would probably make people at any big business shudder, and our marketing plan would certainly have set Philip Kotler´s eyes rolling, but our passion for perfection drove us forward and led us to Jan Hedh. Dan Lepard, a UK expert in bread said of Jan Hedh “There is an impressive, modern artisan baking culture in Sweden, and much of it stems from the work and influence of one man: Jan Hedh.”

Working with Jan Hedh meant making bread and crispbread using healthy, traditional methods and sourdough starters with no compromises. Although it is a slower and skilled process, we don’t believe in rushing something so important. We hope that if we spend time creating great products, you’re more likely to take some time with friends to enjoy them. 

Sometimes, it is the simplest ideas which capture hearts and minds and this bakery in the heart of the Swedish country-side became far more popular than we ever would have thought.

Today, it is as popular as ever, selling a range of artisan bread, crispbreads. pastries, jams and ice cream. 

A desire to make the leap from countryside to city life led me to Scotland and Edinburgh, where Peter´s Yard coffee house and bakery opened near the University in the new Quartermile development at the very end of 2007. 

Here we have a base of loyal customers who we have started to know as friends and I have the privilege of meeting fascinating people who visit our coffee house every day. As for where next on the journey? Who knows?

Peter