A NORTH-EAST artisan bakery is celebrating a huge demand across the region just six weeks after opening its doors.

Supplying restaurants such as The Blackbird, in Ponteland, chefs David Kennedy and Murray Rhind joined forces with the Northumberland Pub Co to launch Kennedy and Rhind in August – supplying a wide range of bread, pies and pastries to restaurants and food markets around the area.

And less than two months after opening their production kitchen at The Beacon at Newcastle’s Westgate Road, the pair are already considering expansion due to a surge of orders.

In addition to supplying The Blackbird, the duo list Newcastle’s The French Quarter, Hibou Blanc, The Earl of Pitt Street and The Northumberland Arms, at Felton, as their clients.

David said: “I’ve had the idea of opening an artisan bakery for about two years now and it was by chance that we found our current production kitchen, which gave us the final push we needed to actually go ahead with it.

"We’re both really passionate about reinventing and modernising classic recipes, using seasonal, locally-sourced and even foraged ingredients to create some really high-quality products.

"It’s definitely a strange time to open a new business but it’s fantastic to have so much interest and being in the position where you have to turn away customers is certainly one of the better problems to have.”

Kennedy and Rhind products can be bought from The Beacon every Saturday from 10am to 3pm.