Warburtons’ long-serving family leadership team is preparing to step back from senior management within the next year, as the bakery giant marks its 150th anniversary and plots its next stage of growth.

Executive chairman Jonathan Warburton said he and cousins Brett and Ross Warburton were “openly talking” about handing over day-to-day leadership to the next generation after more than 25 years at the helm.

“We want to do it gently. We don’t want a bang. There is no need,” he said.

The move would mark a significant generational shift for one of Britain’s best-known family businesses, which was founded in Bolton in June 1876 and now employs almost 5,000 people across 13 bakeries in Great Britain.

Five members of the sixth generation of the Warburton family now work in the business. Jonathan’s twin sons Harry and Jack, alongside Brett’s son Jimmy, joined the trading company’s board in January. Brett’s daughter Megan and Ross’s daughter Ellen are also part of the business.

Warburtons, best known for its Toastie sliced loaf, crumpets, thins and bakery advertising campaigns starring Jonathan Warburton alongside the likes of Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kermit the Frog, currently holds a 21 per cent share of the UK wrapped bakery market.

The company remains highly profitable despite pressure on consumers and changing eating habits. Accounts for 2024 show revenue of £741 million and pre-tax profit of £52.6 million, while the business paid a £27.2 million dividend to around a dozen family shareholders.

Revenue for 2025 is understood to have been close to £800 million, with Warburtons growing by 50 per cent over the past five years.

The handover comes as the bakery pushes further beyond its traditional sliced white bread heartland. Jonathan Warburton said the business must continue innovating as demand for white sliced bread declines.

“Our problem is that we make white, sliced bread really efficiently and profitably but the market is disappearing because people aren’t eating it as much,” he said.

Alternative bakery products, including sandwich thins, waffles and crumpets, now account for 55 per cent of what Warburtons sells.

The company is also preparing a move into mass-produced 100 per cent sourdough, following its acquisition earlier this year of a 180,000 sq ft former Morrisons bakery site in Wakefield.

Warburton said the site, bought for around £40 million, would have cost far more to build from scratch and gives the next generation a platform for expansion.

“It is in a great location, which will provide us with 80,000 to 90,000 sq ft of development space and the opportunity for the next generation of family to really kick on with the business,” he said.

He added that Warburtons sourdough products could arrive “very quickly” following the acquisition, with the company aiming to bring a more affordable, consistent version of sourdough to supermarket shelves.

“There are ways of making it on a much larger scale which means it is £3, more consistent, more controllable and still 100 per cent sourdough, but it has some automation in there,” he said.

The business has also had to navigate operational setbacks. In May, a fire broke out at Warburtons’ Burnley factory, damaging two production lines that made more than 1.5 million pancakes and potato cakes a week.

No one was injured and production at the site resumed in less than a week, with output shifted to other bakeries.

Jonathan Warburton, who joined the family business in 1981 and became executive chairman in 2001, admitted he would find stepping back difficult.

He said he did not want to become the kind of family business leader who remains too involved into later life, but acknowledged the company had become more than a job.

“My wife says the problem is you don’t really have any hobbies,” he said. “But this is my hobby.”