Saturday profile - Martin Lightbody: It's a piece of cake if you follow the recipe

But for a man who has dedicated his whole life to cakes, it is perhaps surprising that Lightbody does not actually like doing any baking himself.

Sweet stuff is in his blood. As the fourth generation of the family owned bakery business Lightbody Celebration Cakes, Lightbody has taken a local firm into the top echelons of the UK's bakery industry.

In the latest development, the firm was taken over by Finsbury Foods just over a year ago in a 37.5 million deal.

Now Lightbody has been named as the new chief executive of Finsbury's entire operations.

The business is wide-ranging and includes contracts with Thorntons and Disney and it supplies most of Britain's major supermarkets. It is on track for sales of 154m in the year to the end of June when its results come out next week and boasts a UK-wide staff of 3,000 people.

Even Lightbody's family racehorses are named in honour of the business – their first horse, called A Piece of Cake, has now retired, but a pair of confectionery inspired youngsters are currently in training – Miss Frangipane and Lady Eclair.

Although he has not got much time to spend with the horses, Lightbody says his stud farm, Netherfield, is a "great passion", while he also keeps a – clean – finger in the commercial property pie, with involvement in no less than three separate property businesses.

His father, Robert Lightbody – whose wife, Shona, is a former home economics teacher at the Edinburgh College of Domestic Science – remembers his son as a fiercely competitive, sport-obsessed young man.

"The children went off to do their own thing and were never encouraged to go into the business. I never asked him – he asked me," says Robert Lightbody, whose daughter is an accountant with Unilever.

And keen that the young Lightbody should learn the trade outside of the comfort of the family, he sent his son off on placements to bakeries all over Europe, following his initial training course at Hollings College in Manchester where he shared a flat with George Asher of Nairn-based Ashers Bakery fame.

Asher, a life-long friend of Lightbody, remembers his former flatmate as an "inventive, highly driven" individual.

"He talks a good game and you always think 'You'll never do that'," says Asher.

"But he does – look at everything he's achieved."

But he adds that the father of two is a great believer in the old adage of "all work and no play...".

"A night out with Martin is never a normal night out," says Asher, adding that the bakery guru still retains a penchant for fancy dress parties – and usually comes dressed as a nun.

After further stints learning the trade at bakeries in Switzerland – where he studied at the world-renowned Richemont School – Austria and Belgium, Lightbody finally returned to Scotland to join his father at Lightbody's.

"It might have been easier if he hadn't wanted to follow me into the business – I could have retired in my 50s," laughs Robert Lightbody.

But former Strathallan School pupil Lightbody had serious plans for the business. At that time the company was made up of 20 retail bakery outlets and six celebration cake shops.

Yje younger Lightbody decided to push the cakes side of the business.

After becoming managing director in 1993, he created a 90,000sq ft state-of-the-art bakery production site two years later, taking the company from a moderately successful retail baker to a major volume manufacturer of celebration cakes.

He sold off the firm's retail arm to concentrate on growing the wholesale arm.

"That was very much his thing and I eventually left him to it," says Robert Lightbody.

"No-one can pull the wool over Martin – I think the problem with a lot of family businesses is that a son or daughter comes in, gets the desk and the car and sits back. Martin's never been like that."

Since the takeover by Finsbury, which is chaired by advertising mogul Maurice Saatchi, Lightbody has not sat back to relax.

Earlier this year, he revealed plans to launch a cake factory in China to supply the growing number of western retailers entering the Chinese market.

Indeed, when contacted by The Scotsman this week, it emerged that Lightbody was in China on business – again – hunting down possible site locations in order to open his factory as soon as possible.

Dave Brooks, outgoing chief executive of Finsbury, whose Scottish businesses also include Hamilton-based California Cakes, says Lightbody was an obvious candidate for the job since the takeover of the Lightbody group by Finsbury 18 months ago.

He says: "He is a natural visionary and is well suited to leading a group of people over the next stage of development."

Brooks warned that, while the new chief executive would be facing a challenging start to his tenure, amid a tough economic period for Finsbury.

But he added he was confident that Lightbody could handle it. He says: "Every period is tough for different reasons – there's never an easy time to take over – but I think he will do well."

Lightbody is equally confident, but cautious in the current climate, in which Finsbury has already warned of the possibility of a trading downturn over the coming months.

"It's an interesting time to take over a business," he says, nervously.

But he already has a game plan.

"The first thing I want to make sure is that I can get the business in as good shape as possible and work closely with our customers to make sure we can do as well as possible in the current market," he explains.

Dee Scott, who has worked with Lightbody for ten years since she became the first non-family member to join Lightbody's board as operations director, says his success is down to his strong sense of business.

She says: "I thought I'd met a lot of entrepreneurs in my time, but I didn't know the meaning of the word until I worked with Martin.

"As well as being very business-minded and focused, he really knows his craft."

He might well know how to do it, but Martin leaves any actual cake making to his staff. "I never bake at home," he laughs.

"Though I do have a sweet tooth – with all those cakes, breads and yum yums around, it's hard to resist."