Award-winning Derbyshire pie makers' move to new business park at Staveley will create 10 new jobs

Derbyshire Pie and Co won a fistful of awards including best newcomer, gold award for its Manchester meat and potato pie and silver awards for chicken, ham and white wine pie and homity pie in the British Pie Awards in Melton Mowbray.

Matthew Knowles and Matt Campbell founded the gastro pie company that has gone from strength to strength in two years of trading.

Production has increased from 2,000 pies a week to 10,000 over the past year and the business founders expect that figure to quadruple when the bakery moves from the Welbeck estate on the Derbyshire border.

The business will be relocating to the new Hartington Business Park, off Farndale Road, in Staveley in a few weeks’ time. Operations director Matthew said: “We will be the first one in – it’s very exciting. We're moving from1300 sq ft premises to a unit that is 5,000 sq ft so we’ll be upping the production a fair bit.”

At least ten new jobs will be created to cope with the increase in production.

Derbyshire Pie & Co supplies its produce to pubs, farm shops and delis in Derbyshire. Its clients include the Chatsworth Kitchen at Peak Village, the Devonshire Arms at Beeley and the Devonshire Arms at Pilsley.

Matthew, 29, who lives at Old Tupton, said: “We have started sending pies to London and we are hoping to do more business there once we get moved into a new unit. We’re also doing a lot of work with pub groups and wholesalers in the Leeds area. We'll be talking to larger wholesaler people in the UK over the next few months. We’re looking to grow the business and take it as far as we can.

“We have now won awards for all five of the pies we produce, after winning gold for steak and ale and bronze for saag aloo at the British Pie Awards last year.”

Plans are in the pipeline for the bakery to produce smaller versions of the award-winning gastro pies for football clubs on match days and fish and chip shops.

Business entrepreneurs Matthew and Matt first worked together as 16 years olds in the kitchen at Fischer’s award-winning restaurant in Baslow Hall.

Matt was employed at Fischers for four years and at one point was head chef at the Devonshire Arms in Baslow. Now aged 28 and living in Matlock, he is production director at Derbyshire Pie & Co.

Matthew is a former sous chef at the Devonshire Arms in Beeley and prior to that worked at Losehill House Hotel in the Hope Valley and at East Lodge in Rowsley.

Their aim in setting up Derbyshire Pie & Co was to remove a time-consuming, messy job from kitchens in the hospitality industry during a period when there was a shortage of chefs following the pandemic lockdown.

For further information on the business go to www.derbyshirepies.co.uk