What we do

We manufacture vegetarian sweet & savoury products for the retail, catering and licensed trades. We do it by hand - a few big mixers, a pastry rolling machine and a potato peeler are about as industrial as we get. Our range includes organic (Soil Association Certified), gluten free, and wheat free lines. All are GMO free.

How did it start?

Gobblins is a child of the 60’s…of back-to basics, self-sufficiency, The Good Life. A spin-off from the alternative community venture at Old Hall in East Bergholt in Suffolk, Peter Dow and his family moved with 2 other families to an old rectory at Elmswell near Bury St Edmunds. Amongst several ventures including pig-keeping he tried his hand at milling flour from locally grown organic wheat using an electrically powered ‘Inkoos’ mill made by Turners of Ipswich for the third world market.

The long story can be shortened to…bread baked in a wood-fired oven to demonstrate the flour at local hippy fairs & gatherings, local wholefood shop liked bread and encouraged diversification, move to business unit, selling all over East Anglia, set up retail outlet, take over original retail outlet, new factory etc. etc. and here we are.

27 years on and a model of a ‘sustainable’ business. Some of the 17 employees have been with Gobblin for all of the 27 years – all for at least 10 years. They live in the village and largely walk or cycle to work. Their wages, derived from London & the Home Counties, are spent in the local Co-op, pub, chip shop etc. The production methods haven’t changed since the early days – no chemical homogenisers, binders or fillers, so almost everything produced by hand.

The vegetarian ethic has remained the mainstay of the product range, and, as the tide has turned back to their organic roots, the range of sweet & savoury bakery products now reflects this through their Soil Association accreditation for a proportion of the product list.

Gobblins has no shops nowadays. Our delivery range takes in just the East of England and inside M25, but still delivered in our own refrigerated vans. However, the new internet facility is allowing expansion countrywide and beyond.

For a product list click here.

For a list of the retail outlets we serve, click here.