Eight years ago, Harden Foods employed seven people and concentrated on producing shortbread out of its small base on the Hockney Road Industrial Estate.

Today the company has a work-force of more than 200, turns over £8 million and includes Tesco, Morrisons and Asda amongst its clients.

The company makes a range of shortbreads, flap-jacks, chocolate brownies and Eccles cakes at its 27,000 sq ft headquarters in Lidget Green and ships its wares all over the country.

And now it is branching out with a new range of Fairtrade products already on sale and a further three product ranges due before the end of the year.

Managing director Andrew Higgins took over in 1998 when he bought the business from his mother. A former employee of Morrisons and the Co-op, Mr Higgins had worked all over the country but always wanted to return to his native Bradford and decided his family business was the perfect way.

He said: "When we started many moons ago we were based on Hockney Road at a small 5,000 sq ft place. Our marketplace was much more specialised and we did business with the likes of Harrods and BHS. When I took over turnover was around £500,000.

"We moved to our new place in 2000 and added extra space not long after.

"Our new focus is on products in the snack area which can be eaten on the move - an increasingly growing area."

Mr Higgins says the company's securing of such high-profile customers as Morrisons and Tesco came after much persistence and hard work. However he now says things are going really well with the supply to the supermarkets' bakery counters - with their wares proving a popular and tasty choice with customers.

Harden Foods does much of its own shipping, with deliveries going out daily to places as far away as Newcastle and Birmingham.

Customers further afield are supplied using out-sourced firms.

Looking to the future, Mr Higgins hopes to move into the growing Fairtrade market and expects the new product ranges Harden will launch this year to give them an even higher profile.

He anticipates the company will soon outgrow the Lidget Green premises.

However, as a Bradford man born and bred, Mr Higgins says they have no intention of moving beyond the BD postcode.

e-mail: mark.casci@bradford.newsquest.co.uk