Great Cornish Food Store Marks 10th Birthday With Ten-Day Event

Stack 62,000 cinnamon buns on top of each other and you would end up with a tower seven times the height of the Eiffel Tower. That is roughly how many Truro’s Great Cornish Food Store has sold over the past decade, and the team are about to throw a ten-day party to mark the milestone.

The showcase store, based next to Waitrose, will celebrate its tenth anniversary from 12th to 21st June with tastings, demonstrations, samplings, competitions and giveaways. It will also wave goodbye to its founder and driving force Ruth Huxley, who is retiring after handing over to Richard Bain as Managing Director last November.

Ten days, ten themes

A different activity is planned for each of the ten days. Supplier sampling sessions, prize competitions and giveaways are all linked to the number ten. Ten specially designed, freshly baked cupcakes will be given away each day, and the store’s café is putting on a £10 menu featuring throwback favourites for the duration.

The store opened on 16th June 2016, the same day as the Waitrose next door. It remains the only 100 per cent local food hall in the UK that shares its premises with a major supermarket, stocking around 2,500 lines from more than 250 local suppliers.

A founder’s farewell

Ruth set up the store as a centre for the best Cornish produce. In 2022 the business transitioned to employee ownership, giving its team of nearly 40 a say in how things are run and a share in the profits. Great Cornish Food estimates its value to the local economy over the past ten years sits at around £70 million.

Ruth said: “The success of the Great Cornish Food Store is testament to the great variety and quality of produce we’re able to source from land and sea.

“We couldn’t have done it without all the brilliant people who produce such fabulous food and drink and everyone else who has been part of the store’s incredible journey. We’re looking forward to celebrating a memorable decade in the coming days.”

Her successor Richard said: “Huge congratulations to Ruth, the whole team and all the suppliers and collaborators who have supported the principle of Great Cornish Food from the start and over the last ten years.

“It’s an honour for me to lead the business forward and to build on that decade of success.”

A decade in numbers

The store has compiled a list of some of its top sellers over the ten years. Alongside the 62,000 Da Bara cinnamon buns, customers have got through 3.5 tonnes of Cornish Yarg cheese, 46,000 punnets of Boddington’s strawberries and 11,800 bottles of Camel Valley sparkling wine. That works out at around 59,000 toasts.

Over three tonnes of Cornish crab meat have crossed the counter, along with nearly 18 tonnes of the store’s own Great Cornish Sausages. Laid end to end, those sausages would stretch about 13.5 miles. The in-store chefs have also baked around half a million scones from scratch since opening day.

“The reason I am in business”

Penny Williams, of Helston-based Penny’s Pies, was one of the suppliers paying tribute to Ruth and the store.

Penny said: “The Great Cornish Food Store is the reason I am in business. Ten years ago, thanks to The Post Office Horizon Scandal, I was made bankrupt, lost my business, a pub, restaurant, shop and post office and had to do something to provide for my family.

“I started making a few pies as the store was being set up. They spotted them and got in touch.”

She added: “I started supplying them from the opening day. Penny’s Pies was born. The Great Cornish Food Store has been consistently my best customer over the last 10 years.

“Ruth has always been a source of advice and an ear through all the growing pains of a small business, for which I will always be grateful. I am where I am today, with an expanding business, because of the Great Cornish Food Store.

“I cannot express the debt of gratitude I owe to them. They are amazing and here’s to the next 10 years.”

📷Diane Bilkey, the Great Cornish Food Store’s Café & Deli Team Leader, with a tray of cupcakes baked by her to mark the tenth anniversary. Managing Director Richard Bain is pictured far left, and Founder Ruth Huxley is far left on the front row.