New owner of much-loved Northside bakery plans big expansion with new jobs

The new owner of a well-known Northside bakery has unveiled big plans to go beyond Cork city and put their cakes on shop shelves nationwide.

The Old Mill Confectionery bakery, based on the New Mallow Road in Blackpool, has been selling sweet treats made with fresh dairy on Leeside since it first opened in 1984. Locals have been enjoying their cakes for decades, often being a go-to choice for Tesco or Dunnes shoppers craving a nice mille-feuille or Swiss roll for a lovely post-work sugary snack.

And now, its new owner has unveiled plans to ramp up production with a €1m investment – which should see up to 20 additional jobs, a range of new products and an expansion to stores across Ireland. The business was recently sold to entrepreneur and Leesider Daniel Buckley, who will take the reigns as old owner and respected local businessman heads into retirement.

The bakery currently has 40 staff, and new talent will be hired over the next two years. Daniel is already the owner of a Waterford bakery called DessertFirst, and said he has plans to make The Old Mill a household brand nationwide.

He said: “It’s great for me because I grew up on the Northside, I’ve been eating their stuff for years. We’re keeping on staff and have plans for lots of new products and more to come. We’ll be talking about what to do next in the weeks to come – in my other bakery in Waterford, we started rolling out some protein products, so we might take a look at that here.”

And it’s likely the Old Mill is in good hands, as Daniel is also one of the main businessmen behind the groundbreaking mental health site ADHD Now – which made headlines when it first launched late last year. Cofounded alongside fellow Cork entrepreneurs, this business works to slash assessment wait times by matching service users with medical professionals within days – a huge drop from the year + wait times offered by many other services.

The ADHD Now platform is less than a year old – but they’ve already seen huge demand and recently expanded into the UK.