Lesley Cameron, Chief Executive of Scottish Bakers and National Food and Drink Training, shares her vision for a thriving, sustainable bakery industry
Could you just introduce yourself and give us an overview of Scottish Bakers?
My name is Leslie Cameron. I’m the Chief Executive of Scottish Bakers and National Food and Drink Training. Scottish Bakers was founded in 1891. We have a new mission, which is to empower our members by fostering a culture of innovation, sustainability and people development. Scottish Bakers is here to provide a platform for investment, collaboration and knowledge sharing to support profitable economic growth of the sector.
We represent our members and partners with policymakers to develop and grow a transformational bakery sector. So that’s our mission, our purpose. Our role is to futureproof the Scottish baking industry by working in collaboration with members and key stakeholders. We are the voice of the bakery industry. Our mantra is: many hands, one voice.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing independent and small to medium-sized bakery businesses in Scotland today? And how is Scottish Bakers helping its members to tackle them?
I’d say a hot topic for us is people — skilling and the future talent pipeline. The sector has fewer people wanting to work within it. We work with the college network, schools and career advisors to highlight the bakery sector as a positive career destination. We don’t do it alone; we work with the CBA across the UK as well. It’s really about infiltrating and making it that positive career destination.
We work with employers and also with parents too, as they tend to influence career choices. But the biggest challenge is the talent pipeline coming into the sector.
The second is the ongoing escalating costs, which won’t be new to you. We’ve touched on labour — that’s a challenge — and also the monetary side of things. Employer national insurance is one of the biggest issues hitting the membership, alongside ongoing challenges around ingredient prices, energy bills — all those lovely things. Soaring costs drive a lack of investment, which means the bigger players aren’t investing in innovation, and that starts to drag the sector down. It’s very challenging.
Scottish Bakers supports its membership by exploring different funding streams. We work with the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and DEFRA to open doors to investment and Innovate UK. We’re a signposting organisation that helps members access funding.
Scottish Bakers has a strong focus on skills development. What do you see as the most critical skills today’s bakery professionals need in order to succeed in a modern and competitive market?
The biggest challenge we see on a daily basis, and this comes through National Food and Drink Training, is fault finding. We work with a lot of apprentices and bakery managers, helping them drill into challenges with product development. So fault finding and continuous improvement need to be part of the culture going forward.
I mean, I can touch on this as well — a lot of bigger bakeries these days are automated. When students go through a college course, they’re making cakes and enjoying the beautiful side of the bakery industry. But it can be a cultural shock when they move into a full-scale factory. There’s a challenge in understanding that if you’re a craft baker, you’ll make beautiful cakes — but working in a plant bakery is a very different environment. Still, fault finding and CI are the biggest areas.
With ongoing issues like supply chain disruption, inflation and labour shortages, what advice could you offer to bakery businesses trying to futureproof themselves in uncertain times?
So, from a Scottish Bakers perspective, it’s about diversifying your supplier base and business. Make sure you’re buying smart and selling smarter — licensing agreements, pop-ups, online, monitoring raw material prices, working with different suppliers to ensure continuity of price.
That brings me to cost controls — making sure product costings are in place, monitoring manufacturing yields, portion sizes, waste, raw material pricing and packaging supplies.
We would also recommend embracing technology — stock management, sales tracking and customer engagement tools — and putting the customer at the heart of everything you do. Stay customer-centric, adapt to change, ensure you have the right product range, offer healthier options, local flavours and use the right buying channels, whether that be online or gifting. It’s about staying abreast of what the future looks like and committing to continuous improvement.
Read the full interview in our latest issue here
