A family-run baking empire has opened its 13th store in a town where bosses say they should have set up shop years ago.

Boyce's Bakery, which opened its first branch 30 years ago in Leysdown, welcomed its first customers to its new Sittingbourne High Street branch on Monday (March 31).

The firm has transformed number 118, which had been empty for more than two years after P&R Italian Shop was sold off in November 2022.

Before that, it had been a JC Rook & Sons. The butchers went into administration in March 2022.

But after years of being boarded up, customers are again bustling in and out of the doors.

The chain is run by founders Keith and Karen Boyce and their son, Tommy Boyce.

Their daughter Stacey Canty, and her husband Nic, were busy in the shop, serving customers baked breads and cakes, when KentOnline visited yesterday (Tuesday, April 1).

Stacey and Nic started in the bakery world with their Billy's Bakehouse franchise but now work with the Boyces.

The family has built up a bakery empire since opening the first store on Sheppey in 1995, when Keith and Karen moved to the Island from London.

Today, there are Boyce’s Bakerys in Leysdown, Sheerness, Brambledown, Edenbridge, Allington, Gillingham, Parkwood, Rainham, Canterbury, Herne Bay, Hoo, Snodland and now Sittingbourne.

Nic said after just a day-and-a-half of trading, he feels the bakery should have opened in town “years ago”.

The 40-year-old said: “We have our production unit on the Eurolink [estate], and we feel like Sittingbourne is up and coming.

“We also used to do the market here and had Sittingbourne customers visit our sites on Sheppey, so it made sense to open here.

“We have had customers say that they are glad to see us come, which is very welcoming.”

With the site being unused since P&R Italian left, Nic said the lot did need upgrading.

He added: “It did take quite a bit of investment – between £50,000 and £150,000 – to get the unit up and running as we had to renew the lot.

“We haven’t finished the work and haven’t had our final bill from builders but the investment shows how much we believe in the town.”

Staff from the other bakeries have been drafted to work in the shop while it gets up and running.

However, between seven and eight positions at the bakery are set to open up.

Boyce’s joins other bakeries in the High Street, such as A.E. Barrow & Sons, Greggs and Cake Box.

Also in the town centre is the Central Pie Shop in East Street, and Cheran’s Bakery in West Street.