This year was supposed to be one of celebration for WC Rowe as it marked its 65th anniversary, but instead it held the “blackest day” in the company’s history when fire ripped through its Falmouth factory.

It took eight fire crews to bring the fire under control and contain it to a small area, but not before extensive damage had been caused to the electrical system. This shut the factory and effectively brought pasty production to a halt.

In just six days, however, an emergency pasty line was up and running at the bakery’s other site in Penryn and work got underway on the complex task of refitting the main bakery off Bickland Water Road. That work could have taken many months, but was completed in just 72 days with the factory being officially re-opened by MP Sarah Newton last week.

WC Rowe’s chairman and owner, Alan Pearce, who joined the company as an apprentice over 45-years-ago and inherited the business in 1999, said: “I can truly say that 19th July, 2014 was the blackest day in the history of WC Rowe. However, the amount of effort and understanding we received from so many people – our customers, suppliers, fellow pasty makers, our bank and of course our wonderful staff – was incredible.

“Everyone pulled together and, with tremendous vital support from our insurer Travelers, our bakery was back up and running in record time and is once again producing the full range of pasties to the Rowe’s championship standard.”

CEO Kerry Lynch added: “We are extremely excited about the future, not least because we now have one of Europe’s most state of the art production facilities. This will help us to accelerate the dynamic changes that were already under way prior to the fire. We are now picking up where we left off but this new production site means we can move forward even faster.”

Following her visit, Mrs Newton said: “Few people appreciate the stresses and strains that must have gone on behind the scenes to keep the show on the road at this family business. It’s great news for Falmouth that Rowe’s award-winning pasties are back.”

WC Rowe was founded in 1949 by Bill Rowe who would crimp around 100 pasties a day in the back of his shop - today the company employs a team of 54 full time crimpers and has 18 of its own shops plus five concessions throughout Cornwall and Devon.

Bill Rowe’s original philosophy of “quality and value” has remained a permanent ingredient throughout the bakery’s journey and, still today, plays an important part in the development of all new products.

Everyone at Rowe’s was therefore delighted when their pasties scored a hat-trick at the Eden Project World Pasty Championships back in March, with their two development chefs winning both the professional bakers’ categories and their long standing customer the West Cornwall Pasty Co, scooping the much coveted best commercial Cornish pasty award.

To pick up a half price pasty from Rowe's, buy a copy of this week's Packet and turn to page 11.