Volunteers use their loaves to help bakery rise again

Published on Wednesday 25 August 2010 16:25

THEY are the bread and butter of any small town.

• Jane wood says the bakery will help boost dunbar's retail offering, which has suffered in recent years

So when a long-standing family bakery closed down, a group of locals decided to step in and raise enough dough to set up their own neighbourhood patisserie.

In what is thought to be the first of its kind in Scotland, volunteers have banded together to launch a not-for-profit bread shop in Dunbar offering not just savoury bites but training in traditional baking.

Running as a social enterprise, as many as six jobs could be created and project chiefs hope to break even within three years of opening.

More than 230 shareholders have already bought into the scheme, raising in excess of 23,000 with all proceeds from over-the-counter sales being be ploughed back into bakery.

Many of those investors are local residents and will be rewarded with discounts at the shop rather than reap the dividends of their shares.

Business chiefs expect the aroma of freshly baked artisan bread to be wafting down the town's High Street from Dunbar Community Bakery by spring next year after this week securing an investor and premises.

Spearheading the initiative is retail expert Jane Wood, who has an enviable pedigree in community- orientated enterprises and is currently chief executive of Scottish Business in the Community and chair of Essential Edinburgh.

"Confidence in Dunbar High Street has suffered due to out-of-town and edge-of-city developments near Edinburgh," said Ms Wood.

"Funding is now in place for the retail unit on High Street, which has good footfall and is right in the heart of the community.

"I think this will kick-start the regeneration of Dunbar and in turn kick-start property prices. I imagine other retailers will come here when they see the retail (opportunities] getting better."

She added: "This is something that needs to be repeated throughout Scotland, the Europeans have done this much more than we have.

|Social enterprise is going to be a very important part of our economic growth. Another thing to note is that everyone involved at this stage are all volunteers."

Dunbar's community- minded concept was first mooted in 2008 ago after the town's family-run baker, which had supplied the town's savoury snacks for the last 150 years, shut up shop when the owners retired.

Ms Wood stressed the planned co-operative bakery had been driven by the community and was unique because it has received no public sector funding of any kind.

"There's nothing like this in Scotland and there's not a traditional bakers in the High Street any more," she said.

"The potential is huge because as with any community project this is not just about a bakery but about how it interacts with the community. It is also about educating young people as we want to use it for training people in the industry."

[e-mail]