Williams Handbaked at Preston Docks wins a Taste Lancashire Producer Award

Plenty of Lancashire tea breaks have been improved by a biscuit or a slice of flapjack from Preston. This year the family behind Williams Handbaked had a reason of their own to celebrate, after the bakery picked up one of the county's newest food honours.

Williams Handbaked, a family-run bakery based at Preston Docks, won the Taste Lancashire Producer Award for Bakery, Pies and Pasties. The awards are run by Marketing Lancashire, the county's tourism and destination organisation.

The ceremony took place on Wednesday 11 February 2026 at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, where the producer awards were held alongside the Lancashire Tourism Awards. The awards were sponsored by Preston-based Booths, and the bakery had been revealed as a finalist the previous December.

Responding to the win, the company said it was especially delighted to have been named Lancashire Producer of the Year in its category, a fitting recognition for a business that makes its products in the city.

The bakery was founded by Valerie Williams and describes itself as an award-winning family business. It is well known for its luxury biscuits, giant Eccles cakes, gooey flapjack and traybakes, the kind of treats that sit happily on a cafe counter or in a gift hamper.

Everything is made locally. The company bakes and packs all of its products at its craft bakery in Preston, from its base at Dockland House on the Anchorage Business Park, just off Chain Caul Way near the marina.

The family has also seen how much goodwill the business has built up in the city. In 2018 the bakery's delivery van was stolen during a break-in, and it was returned after an appeal on Facebook led by Katie O'Malley, one of the family members who runs the firm.

Wins like this one matter to small producers, and a county category title gives a family bakery a welcome boost in a busy marketplace.

For Preston, it is a pleasing story: a family firm on the docks, baking by hand, and now officially among the best in Lancashire at what it does.