Brown's Original Banbury Cakes Limited has shut down after 400 years in business, delivering a significant blow to the UK's economy and confectionary legacy. The Oxfordshire-based company, managed over the last three decades by family owner Phillip Brown, has been in operation since the 1600s.
Historic Business Dissolved
The company was dissolved on April 7, 2026, according to documents from Companies House. Based at a site in Parsons Street, Banbury, the business had a long history, though its original shop was closed in the 1960s and replaced with a Japanese restaurant.
Another Family Business Folds
Just yesterday, an award-winning butchers collapsed into liquidation after 121 years in operation. The family-run Scottish sausage and bacon supplier originally opened its doors in 1905 and maintained traditional butchery methods such as dry-curing bacon and hand-linking sausages.
Puddledub Pork and Fifeshire Bacon Company Limited in Kirkcaldy, run by the Mitchell family, had secured numerous awards over the years. Now, Callum Angus Carmichael and Michelle Elliot of FRP Advisory Trading Limited have become Joint Liquidators of the company.
Ceased Trading
Back in September 2025, the butchers ceased trading after failing to find new owners. On Facebook, the owners wrote: “We would like to thank all of our customers and neighbours – we will miss you.”
