Founded by John Budgen in 1872, Budgens is believed to be one of the oldest supermarket brands in Great Britain. Initially a small, local grocer, the company has expanded and over time the Budgens name appeared on a number of stores throughout the South of England establishing a reputation for servicing the local communities around England’s high streets and suburban towns with quality products.
Budgens stores are run and owned by people who care about the quality, provenance and value of their food. As individual stores serving their own local communities, they are closer to local issues, and therefore able to recognise and cater services to their communities’ needs.
1985 Since moving from its original High Street location, Budgens has served the local community from Kerridge Way since 1985, opened by local pupil and competition winner, Veronica Owen.
Operating under Musgrave Group, the new store at this location had been increased to 5,200 sq ft and employed 40 local team members.
2007 Budgens joined the CT Baker Group, a local family business over 250 years old. To this day there is 8th and 9th generations of the Baker family on the Board of Directors.
2011 The CT Baker Group invested £1.25m to expand the store from 7,850 sq ft to 13,000 sq ft. The renovation allowed us to offer a wider range of products to the local community including the introduction of household items into the store, as well as deepening our focus on our local suppliers. At this time we were spending £600,000 per year with our local suppliers and many new relationships with Norfolk producers started to flourish. Chilled and frozen units were upgraded to better our effect on the environment and our workforce increased to 90 team members. This extension saw Budgens of Holt become the biggest Budgens in Britain.
2011-2012 To celebrate over half a million pounds being reinvested into the local economy each year, we launched ‘Budgens of Holt Supplier of the Year Awards’. The very first winner of this annual ceremony was Simon Turner, of Sharrington Strawberries Ltd.
2014 Our store manager, Sandra Taylor-Meeds, celebrated 40 years of service in retail. Starting her retail career in nearby town Cromer, Sandra joined Budgens in 1985 and has managed our Holt store since 1994.
2016 Reacting to the news that Post Office Ltd. was to close down Holt Post Office, the CT Baker Group made a successful bid to to host the town’s Post Office. Personal and business customers could now enjoy full Post Office services for longer hours.
2020 Budgens of Holt was destroyed in a devastating fire on Saturday 20th June 2020, around 9pm. Eight fire crews and fourteen appliances were called to the scene, however, the building had been engulfed in flames within minutes. Fire crews continued to work tirelessly into the night controlling the fire from destroying further buildings in the town. The store was empty at the time of the blaze and no-one was hurt.
It was vital to reinstate our services in Holt as quickly as possible. A ‘pop-up’ Post Office began trading in the Group’s department store (Bakers & Larners of Holt), the first in the country to have a two-counter temporary Post Office. Our Home Delivery service also continued to operate within 4 days with our driver Mike and the team relocating to our sister Budgens store, CT Baker Budgens of Aylsham.
Our focus then turned to supplying Holt’s residents with groceries once again, and work began on a temporary Budgens store in the carpark next to where the fire had demolished the original building. Budgens of Holt had been described as a “lifeline” to local residents and the temporary store opened on 23rdNovember 2020. CT Baker Budgens of Holt now currently employs approx. 50 team members.
2021 The CT Baker Group announce work was to commence on the Kerridge Way site to rebuild Budgens of Holt in November. The planning application approved by North Norfolk District Council stated: “The new design does seek to improve on the previous building by reconsidering the elements of the original building and refreshing them to provide a new store serving Holt for the future.”
Havercroft Construction Limited were appointed as the Principal Contractor for the works, a company registered to the Considerate Constructors Scheme – a scheme which supports to the local economy where possible. Services and tradespeople were sourced within the local area and a large proportion of the materials required were supplied from nearby traders. We celebrated the first spade in the ground on 29th November.
2023 After sixteen months of construction CT Baker Budgens of Holt reopened its doors on 30th March. We celebrated with local suppliers in-store sampling some of our favourite Norfolk products, exclusive giveaways for our opening weekend customers, and launched the Your Rewards loyalty scheme. Holt Post Office and Home Delivery services were welcomed back to Budgens of Holt.