Some job-title changes are mainly an admin exercise. This one feels rather more significant.
Harry Baker is now officially Commercial Director and Tom Baker Operations Director, which means the third generation of the Baker family has joined the Board.
If you’ve dealt with either of them over the past few years, this probably won’t come as a shock. Neither Harry nor Tom has suddenly appeared in a director’s chair overnight. Their involvement in the business has been growing steadily, as has the amount of responsibility sitting with them.
What has changed is that it is now official. And for a family business that started with Roy and Marian Baker in 1973, that makes it quite a moment.
From Roy and Marian, to Steve, to the next generation
Steve has been open about how much the change means to him. When he announced it to the team, he said he could feel some of the weight shift almost immediately. Not because he is disappearing anywhere – Steve remains very much Managing Director – but because the responsibility for where Bakers goes next is being shared more formally.
As he put it:
“We don’t really worry too much about titles in this place, but becoming directors makes a difference. It gives us more strength at that level and it’s important for keeping the company strong, keeping it family and keeping it independent.”
There is another part of this that matters too. Neither Harry nor Tom wanted a director title simply because Baker happens to be written above the door.
Harry sums up the family approach rather neatly:
“You don’t get given the medal and then run the race. You run the race and then you get the medal.”
That is probably the simplest way to explain why these appointments feel like a natural next step rather than a grand changing of the guard.
Tom, Steve and Harry Baker
Harry Baker – Commercial Director
Harry’s world over the past few years has been heavily BakPac.
Since the flexible packaging division launched, he has been right in the middle of its growth – customers, pricing, equipment, opportunities and plenty of conversations about what comes next.
His new role takes that thinking across the rest of Bakers too. Baker Labels, Baker Materials, Sportstiks and BakPac all sit within his wider commercial remit now. And Harry being Harry, that probably means quite a lot of questions beginning with: Why do we do it like that?
He said:
“I’ve been extremely flex-pack focused, so this forces me to look much more widely across the business.
“It’s about making sure there’s a reason behind what we’re doing rather than just carrying on because that’s how it’s always been done. There are definitely things we’ve learned from BakPac that we can bring into the more established parts of the business as well.”
The title also helps in a more practical way. Harry increasingly finds himself around the table with larger brands, suppliers and senior industry contacts. Previously, he says, he often had to earn the authority of the role during the conversation.
Now Commercial Director does at least some of the introduction for him. He still has to justify it afterwards, of course.
Tom Baker – Operations Director
Tom’s side of the business is a little different.
His simple description is that Harry looks after what comes in and he looks after what goes out. In reality, that means production, people, training, processes, systems, targets and the constant job of working out how Bakers can do things better.
As the company has grown, Tom has become increasingly focused on bringing more structure around the way it operates. Not corporate structure for the sake of it. Quite the opposite.
“I want us to become a bigger company that still feels like the small company,” he said.
“People need to know what they’re responsible for and feel confident enough to take ownership of it. Any systems or reporting we introduce have to mean something.”
One subject he comes back to regularly is progression. Bakers has grown a lot of its own talent over the years, but Tom thinks the pathways could be much clearer.
He wants someone joining production to be able to look ahead and see how they could become a team leader, supervisor or manager if that is where they want to go. For him, that matters just as much as the machinery and investment.
“You think about all the people who are here now, but also all the people who’ve gone before us and helped build the company. There’s a responsibility that comes with that.
“Success for me would be looking around in five years and seeing people who are operators today running teams of their own.”
Why now?
The timing is quite fitting.
We are about to share a lot more about Operation Next Gen, the biggest expansion programme Bakers has undertaken for some time.
There will be new equipment. More capacity. Another site. More people. Plenty of change. And somewhere in amongst all of that, the company itself is changing too. Not its ownership. Not its independence. And hopefully not the slightly unconventional way we tend to do things.
But the responsibility for running it is spreading.
Steve was keen to make one point very clear when he spoke to the team: becoming a director doesn’t mean Harry and Tom suddenly know everything. He actively encouraged people to challenge them, bring them ideas and tell them when something doesn’t feel right.
That probably tells you quite a lot about Bakers. There is a new generation at director level, but there is no intention of forgetting the experience already in the building.
As Steve said:
“They’re willing to learn and they appreciate the knowledge we’ve got here. We’ll be stronger together if we use it.”
So yes, it’s a new title for Harry and Tom.
But it is also a fairly important little marker in the history of a business that has been family-run for more than half a century.
And given what we’re about to announce next, the timing could hardly be better.
More on that very soon.