Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Not upheld.
Ad description
A website, www.warrensbakery.co.uk, and paper bag promoted Warrens bakery:
a. The home page of the website stated "Warrens is a traditional bakery, with two production sites and 50 stores throughout Cornwall and Devon. We have served the public proudly since 1860. We are the oldest Cornish Pasty producer in the World, the oldest bakery in Cornwall and one of the oldest artisan bakers in the United Kingdom". On a page entitled "Heritage" text stated "The story of Warrens Bakery began in 1860 ...". The site also included several other references to the fact the bakery had been established in 1860, including a timeline listing milestones in its history.
b. Both sides of the bag included the wording "WARRENS BAKERY 1860 The Oldest Cornish Pasty Maker in the World". The reverse also included the same text that appeared on the "Heritage" page of the website.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the following claims were misleading and could be substantiated:
1. that the bakery had been established in 1860 (ads a and b);
2. "the Oldest Cornish Pasty producer/Maker in the World" (ads a and b).
Response
1. & 2. Warrens Bakery Ltd provided a range of documents, which they believed supported the claim that the business originated in 1860. Those included extracts from a member of the Warren family's local history, authored in 1988. They highlighted that that document stated that "In 1860 William Harvey started a bakery at no.s 7&8 Queen Street, St Just, which was known for the next 100 years as the Queen Street Bakery" and went on to explain that the William Harvey's daughter, Bertha Harvey, married the widower Richard Warren in the twentieth century. They also provided a copy of banns from the wedding of William Harvey (the younger) and Hester Warren in 1886 which stated that William was a "Baker of Queen Street", and that his deceased father (William Harvey senior) was also a "Baker". They also provided an extract from the 1873 edition of Kelly's Directory of Cornwall which listed Mr William Harvey as a baker at Queen Street, St Just. They believed that, in all likelihood, Mr Harvey had been a baker there for some years prior to 1873.
Warrens Bakery also submitted two testimonials from long-standing members of staff, one of whom had worked for the company for nearly 50 years, which confirmed that the date of 1860 had been part of the branding through the entire period of his employment. They also provided a selection of photographs including one showing a branded horse and cart. They asserted that the photo showed people in Edwardian dress (circa 1900−1910), and that the cart shown included the wording "ESTABLISHED OVER 50 YEARS", which they believed reinforced the 1860 designation. Further photos showed how the claim 1860 had featured on branded vehicles and shop fronts, and demonstrated a long-standing record of its usage.
In response to census records compiled by the complainant which showed that in 1871 the Harveys were living at 8 Queen Street, but recorded as "Tin Miners", Warrens Bakery stated that tin miners were known to have engaged in multiple trades, since the mining depression began in the 1860s, the period in question, when a large number of miners went overseas or entered different trades. They posited that William Harvey senior may have learned his trade as a baker, while still described as a miner, in the context of a declining industry, where working hours were diminishing, before becoming a formal shop baker. Further, in light of the fact that there was no record of the Harveys in the 1861 census for Queen Street, but instead to John Richards, the baker at 39, they believed that William Harvey might have been a practising miner while actively establishing his fledgling bakery business; probably producing and delivering from home prior to securing a shop, as many did, or working with another party, potentially under Mr Richards.
Finally, Warrens Bakery stated that other commercial pasty producers in Cornwall were known to be many decades younger than Warrens, and that the next oldest dated back to 1949. Accordingly, they were the oldest commercial pasty producer in Cornwall, the home of the pasty, and therefore the world. They highlighted that they had not claimed that they were the first pasty producer, as others may have come and gone, simply that they were the oldest still in existence.
Assessment
1. & 2. Not upheld
The ASA reviewed the information submitted by Warrens. We considered that the photos, local history authored by R.B. Warren and the testimonials all demonstrated that the date of 1860 had been part of the narrative and branding of the bakery for a number of years, but were not sufficient to confirm, with absolute certainty, that a bakery owned by William Harvey had been established at 8 Queen Street in 1860. Instead, the documents provided confirmed that a William Harvey had been an established baker on Queen Street in 1873. We acknowledged, however, that William Harvey may have been trading as a baker, or established his bakery in the street prior to 1873, but that that was the earliest official record that Warrens Bakery had provided of the bakery's existence.
We considered that consumers reading the claims would believe that Warrens Bakery was a brand with a long history and offered an authentic traditional product rooted in that history. We considered that consumers wishing to purchase a traditional pasty might, upon reading the claims about the bakery's heritage and the references to 1860, be encouraged to choose Warrens Bakery over an alternative purveyor of pasties. We understood that their competitors were much younger, with the oldest having been founded in 1949 and so Warrens Bakery was the oldest pasty provider still trading. In light of that, we considered that any consumers who had chosen to purchase a pasty from Warrens Bakery, as opposed to one of their competitors, because of their claimed heritage, would still have made the same decision to do so had they been aware that the earliest official record of the bakery's existence that they were able to supply was 1873.
We noted that Warrens Bakery were able to provide evidence to show that the brand had a long and established heritage, and we understood that the bakery had been founded at least 76 years before any of their trading competitors. Because of that, we considered that the claims were unlikely to mislead a consumer regarding the heritage of the brand or encourage them to make a purchase that they would not have made, had they been aware that the earliest official record of the bakery that Warrens Bakery held was dated 1873, not 1860. Therefore, we concluded that the claims were not misleading.
We investigated the claims in ads (a) and (b) under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation), but did not find them in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
