Christopher Brennan | 1944 - 2026
It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of Christopher Brennan, Co-Founder and Chairman of Pump Street.
Chris was a lifelong learner, entrepreneur, craftsman and mentor. His curiosity, generosity and relentless pursuit of excellence shaped not only our business, but the lives of countless people who worked alongside him. We will miss him deeply.
A Life of Constant Curiosity
Born in Jamaica in 1944, Christopher was an exceptional explorer from an early age; always learning and at the forefront of developing technologies. From being a boy scout, to gaining his sea legs on crossings to England on a banana boat, he documented his adventures on an 8mm video camera.
After studying Chemistry at the University of the West Indies, Chris was recruited by IBM, where he built a distinguished career spanning Jamaica, the Bahamas, Canada and the United Kingdom. Beginning as a programmer in the era of punch-card computing, he rose through the organisation to become General Manager of IBM Bahamas before helping lead major networking and technology initiatives during a transformative period for the company.
He was never without a new frontier of knowledge, each interest taken on with great fervour, immersing himself at an amazing pace, and acquiring all the information and equipment necessary. These passions spanned deep sea fishing, fine woodwork, steam engine restoration, bee keeping and deep space photography (for which he was published multiple times) to name just a few.
A Fervour for Baking
Christopher’s intense interest in baking started with a trip to Paris in 2008 and the realisation that long-fermented, carefully made baguettes and pains de campagne held in their crust a huge amount of knowledge, craftsmanship and flavour – all of which he immediately wanted to acquire as he set himself the challenge to recreate the loaves’ crunch and crumb.
After going on numerous courses, doing stages at bakeries, and practicing with hundreds of loaves for friends and family, Chris started to bake bread for the Orford Country Market; a local outlet for his efforts, and the proceeds would go to build a fence for Orford Primary School. The school soon had its enclosure, and the village had a new love for sourdough bread – so much that a queue would form every Saturday morning. This was the beginning of our bakery.
The building across the square at 1 Pump Street became the namesake for the business. I joined him in May 2010 to renovate it and build the business, and we opened in November that year. With the support of Head Baker Andy O’Farrell, later joined by Pastry Chef Maxine Clements and Baker David Bailey, we began to build not just a bakery, but a community, and it was this that he was most proud of – bringing together a team, suppliers, and customers who cared about making things with the best ingredients, using traditional methods, striving for excellence and enjoying coming together around food. It was a family business from the start, and the warmth and closeness that brought to the way we worked, alongside the commitment to quality, made for a magical combination.
Chocolate: The Next Chapter
Never one to take it easy, once the bakery was up and running Chris turned his attention to a new area of interest – bean to bar chocolate. Baking brought chocolate into our lives with a new lens, and he asked all the most important questions; What are the ingredients? Where do they come from? How is it made? What makes the best chocolate exceptional?
He answered them all, and more, and thus our craft chocolate was launched into the world. Inventing machines, honing recipes to perfection, getting to know farmers, meeting a whole new world of professionals striving for change and excellence in chocolate; he found another area in which he could make a difference.
He promoted and celebrated the connections between sourdough and chocolate as fermented foods, both transformed from simple beginnings by yeast and bacteria. His contribution stands out not just for us, at Pump Street, but in the wider world of cocoa growing and chocolate making around the world.
An Inspirational Leader
Chris led the business by example; working hard, expecting excellence of himself and others, treating everyone he met with warmth and kindness. He will be remembered for his commitment, his drive, and his unique, endearing communication style – including his warm, wily smile, the way he would say “Yo” on the phone and hang up equally quickly once the important work was done, his poignant and insightful questions.
His impact should be held up as an example of the best that entrepreneurship and small business can give the world; inspiration and enjoyment for the team and customers alike, tangible opportunities for people to learn valuable skills, operating on a human scale, making real change in the local and extended community by supporting and honouring knowledge and craft in everything.
I count among the people who have reached out to me following his passing fellow bakers, chocolate equipment manufacturers, cocoa growers, graphic designers and printers, customers and our wonderful team, to name just a few. All with so many wonderful things to say about how he worked and what he built.
It is a legacy we will strive to uphold and carry forward every day.