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Scottish Bakers Annual Conference 2012
Scottish Bakers 121st Annual Conference: Supporting our Craft took place over the weekend of 11th-13th May 2012 at the Westerwood Hotel in Cumbernauld near Glasgow.
The event was a great success with 200 delegates at Friday dinner, Saturday conference and 300 guests at Saturday Presidential Installation & Dinner and the first ever Scottish Baker of the Year Awards, which was compered by Artisan Baker from the Great British Bake Off, Paul Hollywood.
To see the full Conference programme and information about speakers and sponsors, please click HERE.
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Photographs from the conference and Scottish Baker of the Year Awards are available to view and download. We would like to say a big thank you to Zeelandia for sponsoring the photographs. Please click on the links below to view and download. |
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Scottish Baker of the Year National Awards Scottish Baker of the Year Regional Awards Scottish Bakers Saturday Conference Scottish Bakers Saturday Conference Cont. Scottish Bakers Presidential Installation and Dinner - Saturday Scottish Baker Year Competition - Product Judging Day - April 2012 |
The conference theme was Supporting our Craft with key note addresses from:
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Stewart Stevenson, MSP the Minister for Environment and Climate Change who talked about supporting the bakery sector in Scotland and passing on the love of good food to the next generation. Stewart is the Scottish Nationalist Party Minister for Environment and Climate Change. After retiring from the Bank of Scotland as Technology Director he was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2001 having joined the SNP in 1961. He was Transport Minister for part of the 2007-2011 administration and was appointed to his current post, after being re-elected at the May 5, 2011, election. Stewart was born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, and studied Mathematics at the University of Aberdeen, graduating in 1969. He is the MSP for Banffshire and the Buchan Coast. Mr Stevenson commented "Scotland has an impressive reputation world-wide as a land of food and drink. The bakery sector continues to contribute to that. It is now incumbent on us all to energise the next generation and show how baking is central to people's lives." |
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Ken McMeikan, Chief Executive of Greggs Plc tackled the thorny issue of combatting the rise of the supermarket and offered high street bakers hope for the future and ideas for creative thinking to widen the services high street bakers offer their loyal customers. Ken joined Greggs PLC in 2008 as Chief Executive after a long and distinguished retail career with the Sears Group, Tesco and Sainsbury which included a spell as CEO of Tesco in Japan. Under Ken’s leadership, Greggs has delivered record underlying profits in 2010 and 2011, and is on track to deliver ambitious growth plans to open another 600+ shops in the UK, creating around 6,000 new retail jobs. Ken is HRH Prince of Wales’ Ambassador for the North East, as a result of his commitment to socially responsible business practice and work in local communities. He is also the Regional Chairman of the CBI North East. Ken said "Small and medium sized bakers have a choice, to let the supermarkets corner the convenience market or fight back by continuing to offer customers a unique and quality experience. We need to think creatively and explore new opportunities to meet customer needs and delight them with every visit." |
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Paul Hollywood spoke about how to capitalise on the increased interest in home and commercial baking by delivering the products customers want to a consistently high standard. Paul is well known as a judge alongside Mary Berry on BBC’s Great British Bake Off. The son of a baker with a chain of shops on the East Coast of England, he has worked as head baker at some of the UK’s most exclusive hotels including Cliveden, Chester Grosvenor and The Dorchester. He went on to establish the Paul Hollywood Artisan Bread Company and now supplies Harrods, amongst others, with his own branded bread. In 2005, he authored a best-selling book ‘100 Great Breads’ which has been published in ten countries and seven languages, and was voted ‘top bread and pastry book’ by the Gourmand Academy. His second book ‘How to Bake’ will be published by Bloomsbury in May 2012. Paul said "I am and will always be a baker and I believe in the contribution bakers make to people's lives. I will always promote the high street baker as I believe the quality of baked goods more than justifies stopping into a local baker, I want to see queues out of the doors again. And to see the industry in Scotland come together in one place with a view to delivering even better quality and creativity is really heartening." |
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Speakers' presentations at Scottish Bakers Conference are available to view and download below!
Ken McMeikan, Chief Executive, Greggs PLC
James Withers, Chief Executive, Scotland Food and Drink
Craig Stevenson, Managing Director, Braehead Foods
Maurice van Tongeren, Head of Sales International, IREKS
Shari Rife, Manager, Creativity & Innovation, Rich Products Corporation
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Alan Clarke, Chief Executive of Scottish Bakers said "We are delighted with the number of new faces we saw in the room over the last three days and committed to our members and bakers in Scotland to promote their work and continuously support the bakery trade. Supporting our Craft is what Scottish Bakers has been and will continue doing in the future. We are confident that the first ever Scottish Baker of the Year Awards that Paul compered on Saturday will help raising the profile of craft bakers in Scotland".
We would like to congratulate all winners of the Scottish Baker of the Year competition and thank all of our speakers. We would also like to thank all of our sponsors, especially our conference partners, Bako Northern & Scotland and California Raisins, and the overall sponsor of the competition, BFP Wholesale Ltd. Without our speakers and sponsors this high quality conference would not have been possible.
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Sponsors of Conference & Awards