The owners of a historic bakery said support from the community has been “amazing” as they opened their sixth site.

Bushells Bakery, which has been in Lowestoft for nearly 140 years, has now expanded into Kessingland.

The new site has opened in Field Lane and Bushells director Matthew Ellis said he can’t believe how busy it has been.

“It came out of the blue,” he said. “We have been after a shop in Kessingland for a while and the hairdressers had become available. We just felt that was a good time for us.

“Since the end of the pandemic we have looked at the business and thought about trying to rebuild and push on a bit more.

“When I joined the business 20 years ago we had seven shops. But we had to close one in Beccles and Norwich Road in Lowestoft because the trend had gone and no one was using them.

“But now I feel it’s going back the other way. With this Kessingland shop, we are now back up to six.”

The new bakery offers all of your favourites including bread rolls, cakes, savoury treats, filled rolls as well as an on-site coffee shop.

Other Bushells locations include four shops in Lowestoft in Tennyson Road, Hollingsworth Road, London Road South, Westwood Avenue and one in Gorleston in Magdalen Way.

Mr Ellis said business across all shops have been “ticking away nicely” as more people have decided to shop local.

He said: “I was ever so nervous because Kessingland hasn’t had a bakery for many years and we had no knowledge of whether there was a need for one, so we just took a gamble on it really.

“It has been amazing. It defies belief how busy it has been but it has been so well supported by the local community.”

Bushells is also on Uber Eats, Just Eats and Deliveroo as the business “pushes on into the modern era”.

“You have to diversify in this day and age,” Mr Ellis added: “I think people are genuinely using their local shops more now, they have gotten used to shopping local and not going out so much.”