Prestwich bakery MASA may 'take a pause' amid redevelopment

Rick Marlow, founder of MASA in Prestwich, signed a seven-year lease when he opened Neighbourhood by MASA on Bury New Road in March last year.

The team currently makes all the baked goods for the store, from their award-winning sourdough to fresh focaccia and sweet treats, in their Longfield Centre bakery, which is set to close for good in just over two weeks.

The town centre shopping centre will be demolished and redeveloped as part of a £100m regeneration project.

Official demolition works are scheduled to begin on March 13 and will last more than three months, before concluding on June 25.

While Neighbourhood by MASA regularly sees queues out of the door, the impending work means that they may have to “take a pause” if they cannot secure a new location to bake from in the near future.

As a key business in the community, it is urging customers to “show up for the small hospitality businesses that make Prestwich the place we love”.

In an update on social media, a spokesperson for MASA shared: “On Saturday, we’ll have just two weeks until we have to leave our little bakery on the Longfield centre.

“We’ve not yet secured somewhere to go (things are in the pipeline) and we have no idea if we’ll have to take a pause for a few weeks, or change our offering until we’re sorted.

“It’s quite a scary thought for our little independent business.

“That and the fact that the village is a bit of a ghost town right now because of the regeneration.

“If you can show up for the small hospitality businesses that make Prestwich the place we love, please do it now. The big chains can survive difficult times, we can’t take that as a given.

“Prestwich, we love you! Thank you for letting us do what we love.”