Silver anniversary is cherry on the cake for Karen

Karen has been giving service with a smile at Oddie's in Padiham Road, Burnley, and colleagues and friends joined Karen for a cuppa and a slice of cake when managing director Bill Oddie dropped in with a bouquet of flowers to mark her special anniversary.

Mr Oddie congratulated Karen on her great achievement and for her loyal service and hard work.

Burnley born Karen said: “I love every minute of it, the variety of making up the sandwiches, baking and working on the front counter makes it a really varied job.

“There is a special family atmosphere at Oddie’s and it is a great place to work.

“It is the people who you work with, though, that makes all the difference to enjoying your job because it is a relaxed and happy place.

“Also the shop is a big part of the community, because we have our regular customers, and some of them come in twice a day for bread and confectionery.”

Karen, who works four mornings a week at the bakery, added: “Many of our customers have become friends, and there’s a real mix of people who come in.

“The older ones, some of them who are real characters, like to tell you tales about their lives and it is fascinating to hear what they’ve achieved.

“We also make sure that we keep an eye on them and sometimes in the winter we’ve popped out with their regular orders if they’ve not been able to make it to the shop because of the bad weather.”