By Shaurya Shaurya
Copyright walesonline
Bake Off star Benjamin Condé has opened his third bakery in Wales. After a successful launch in Llanelli followed by its entry to Swansea , St Hugo Bakery, owned by Bake Off star Benjamin Condé has opened another branch in Swansea’s uplands area bringing in more flavours from France to Wales’ second city. Condé, appeared in the quarter finals of Bake Off: The Professionals and has offered his delicacies to Wales for quite some time now; first bringing pop-ups to Cardiff, and eventually opening a bakery at the Llanelli Market early 2025. After serving 7,000 customers and selling 2,000 pain au chocolat pastries within three months of its opening, the bakery welcomed another branch in May 2025, but this time in Swansea. Originally from Llanelli , Condé now lives in Uplands, where he has now opened his third bakery. He is now looking to move the production side of business out of Llanelli , and into Swansea . He said: “I think with their redevelopment of the Llanelli market and all of those things, ultimately we will always keep a foothold in Llanelli, but I don’t think long term that will be the bakery itself,” he said. For the latest restaurant news and reviews, sign up to our food and drink newsletter here His first venture in Swansea, the St Hugo Bakery had a “a very good response” selling around 5,000 cinnamon buns, 3,400 pain au chocolat, and more than 5,000 croissants. He said: “They’re loving the autumnal menu — the pumpkin spice, the pecan and maple pain au chocolat. They’re absolutely adoring everything about it. “I think they’re really enjoying the quality of the products that we sort of make and also watching us consistently improve. “So even though we make great food, I think like every baker and every bakery team, we always want to keep improving on our own standards.” Having already gone through the process of setting up a store in Swansea meant that the team behind the bakery was able to set up the Uplands store in just four weeks, as compared to the two months it took them to open their initial store. “We knew the things that did and didn’t work,” Condé explained. “I think how we designed the store, what kind of coffee equipment we needed and where we went to, I think that really influenced where we then went to next. “I think it’s taught us a lot of lessons as to what to do and what not to do, but it’s also taught us a lot of things about our own values and what we stand for and where we are and aren’t willing to compromise.” The St Hugo Bakery now sits at 21 Uplands Crescent, SA2 0NX where the Uplands Emporium used to be before it closed down , but it was a “very big building challenge” to get the bakery running including roof repairs and rewiring. The scale of the job will be evident as soon as customers walk in. He said: “I liken it to a complete Scandi minimalism based shop. So we’ve got exposed wood, we’ve got all the furniture from the 1960s and 70s and we’ve really gone for a very minimal approach where the food and the coffee is really your focal point as you walk in. “It’s all softly lit and we spent good time and energy on making sure that our signage is really lovely and it’s just very tasteful.” St Hugo Bakery had its first day of trading on Friday, September 19 and is open all seven days of the week.
