Sunblest

[George 1978]

I am sure most people remember Sunblest bread with its smiley sunshine logo on the bread wrappers - the sort of bread that went mouldy within a week. I know that they also did crumpets (pikelets in the north) as well.

When did Sunblest stop doing bread (and presumably ceased to exist)? The late 1980s or the early 1990s perhaps? We were often treated to the odd appearance of a Sunblest van outside Alf Roberts' Corner Shop on (and also "in") Coronation Street (usually during the Podmore era when outdoor scenes were shot on film).

I suppose that regional bread companies like Warburtons going national was probably one reason why they have disappeared, but saying that, Hovis is still around even though most people still think of their 1970s adverts "like taking bread to top of t'world" which was ironically filmed in Dorset.

Do they still exist in a corner shop near you?

[Richard1978]

I've got the feeling Sunblest are still around, but only sell through certain outlets.

It seems some brands are only available in certain supermarkets.

[Semi42]

Think the only current national suppliers of bread are warburtons, kingsmill and hovis.
back in the day I remember Hovis, Sunblest, mothers pride and Wonderloaf

[George 1978]

Funnily enough I have just done a Tesco online shop where the Warburtons loaf that I usually have had been substituted for a Hovis one.

Warburtons was "north only" for many years until the late 1990s - they were only advertised on Yorkshire TV (where I saw it for the first time, trying to use a signal booster towards Belmont for an extra ITV region), as well as Granada and Tyne Tees. Warburtons bread even made it onto Crimewatch in the mid 1980s when they did a West Yorkshire-based murder - the Detective heading the case admitted back then that the brand of bread "was not sold in the area where the body was found many miles south".

I wonder whether Allinson Bread (as advertised by Brian Glover with his "nowt taken 'owt" catchphrase) is still around?

[Heather74]

[George 1978]

What's was the closing date on that Ford Fiesta offer? I cannot quite scan it to see the small print on the wrapper.

I assume that the Ford Fiesta was only introduced in the UK in 1976, so it can't be earlier than that?

[Heather74]

30th November 1983

[George 1978]

30th November 1983

Cheers.

This was incidentally around the same time that Ford were moving from their mk1 to their mk2 Fiesta - the A-reg cars were then available. I can see the mk1 version illustrated on the wrapper.

[George 1978]

Just couldn't help noticing on the news that the Ford Fiesta will be ceasing production - ironic considering the fact that the Sunblest wrapper had an offer for one of their cars on it!

[Arran]

Warburtons bread even made it onto Crimewatch in the mid 1980s when they did a West Yorkshire-based murder - the Detective heading the case admitted back then that the brand of bread "was not sold in the area where the body was found many miles south".

Interesting piece of forensic work...

Warburtons is based in Bolton.

Another highly localised bread is Brace's based in south Wales. It is only sold in south Wales and south west England. They originally only advertised on TV in the HTV region although it's a rare sight in north Wales.

[George 1978]

Funnily enough, I was on holiday in the south west in around 2010, and saw a regional weather forecast sponsored by Brace's Bread. I actually wrote to Brace's asking whether if they have any plans to sell them in the East Midlands and they responded saying that they had no plans to do so.

[George 1978]

I received one of those advertising leaflets from Farmfoods courtesy of the postman (as if he doesn't have enough to deal with delivering letters, cards and parcels), and it mentions that Sunblest bread was 75p and is now 69p!

I could have sworn that Sunblest went out of business years ago - certainly Tesco and the other main supermarkets don't sell them like they used to.