Old Mr. Brennan on Geometry

WAX PAPER

When the Irish Times recently reviewed four sliced white pans, the newspaper waxed lyrical about our unique wax paper, saying they liked its “old school” quality. Well if freshness, quality and attention to detail are old school then we are happy to be pupils there. The two words the newspaper of record used to sum up Brennans bread were “Fresh and Tasty”. Ah yes, that’s because our wax paper seals the freshness in. We were the first manufacturer to bring in wax paper and it’s a tradition we’ll be sticking with. Customers love how it feels when they give our bread a squeeze and that’s good enough for us.

COME RAIN OR COME SHINE

Sometimes nature tries its best to stop us bringing you 'Today’s Bread Today.’ When howling storms struggle to bring the whole country to a standstill, our yellow vans fight through rain, hail and snow to get the bread through to you. We pride ourselves on having one of the best fleets of committed bread men and delivery vans in the country. After all, there’s no point baking the freshest bread if you don’t have the means to get it to the people of Ireland.

SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND

Back when Old Mr. Brennan was starting out, there was no baking on a Saturday or a Sunday. So the loaf you picked up on a Friday would have to last till Monday. But once people got used to the fresh taste of Brennans every weekday, they didn’t want to go without at the weekends. And Old Mr. Brennan wanted to make sure that the freshest bread was available every day of the week. So eventually the bakery started working Saturday’s and Sunday’s too. And Brennans soon won its place in Irish hearts by providing households with fresh bread on the weekend and on a Monday morning.

THE PEAK OF FRESHNESS

The “Summit Shop”, perched on the top of Howth Hill in Dublin, started selling Brennans bread in the 1960’s and was the only store for miles around to do so. Suddenly, as news of the fresh bread on a Monday spread, people started travelling from all over North County Dublin to the Howth shop to make sure they got a loaf of Brennans. It goes to prove that getting the freshest bread to market has always been the summit of Old Mr. Brennan’s ambition.

LATE STARTS

‘Early to bed and early to rise’ is a fine motto for most people but not for us here at Brennans. Because our motto is ‘Today’s Bread Today.’ And that means when the country heads to bed, we head to work. We start baking late at night and continue until sunrise. So the bread you see on the shop shelf every day will have left the bakery early that morning, making it one of the freshest in the country. So when we say ‘Today’s Bread Today’ that’s actually what we are talking about.

IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR

We’ve come a long way since Old Mr. Brennan baked the first Brennans bread in a couple of rack ovens on the wall of our one room bakery in the Liberties’ Fumbally Lane! We are now one of the largest bakeries in Ireland and we are still very a much a family affair. Old Mr. Brennan’s family still oversee the recipes and the baking skills that their father perfected in his day.