Local high street continues to thrive as community bakery grows

A community owned bakery announces exciting new plans to buyout premises, provide apprenticeships and purchase new equipment.

Located about 30 miles east of Edinburgh, Dunbar Bakery has been serving the community of Dunbar for over 150 years and as a co-operative with a membership of 1,300 since 2011. Wholly owned by its shareholders who mostly live in town or nearby, the popular high street bakery (runner up in ITV’s 2012 competition Britain’s Best Bakery) provides a range of bread, pastries, cakes and sandwiches to locals and wholesale customers.

Although Covid had an impact on the bakery, it was able to stay open throughout the pandemic stepping up and providing a much relied upon and appreciated service at a difficult time for locals. Co-op Loan Fund is delighted to be able to support Dunbar Community Bakery once again with a loan that will help with growth and the purchase of new equipment with the view to attract more customers to the high street and make sure it continues to thrive.

Employing 6 full time members of staff supported by 4 part time assistants and 5 Management Committee members, the bakery celebrated its tenth birthday with plans to buy the premises and open a training scheme for young apprentices supported by a crowd fund and drive for new members with proceeds ploughed into community benefit.

Kevin Lloyd-Evans, Lending and Relationship Manager at Co-operative & Community Finance who manage the fund said: “We are delighted to be supporting Dunbar Community Bakery again with our third loan. This is a real local success story, creating jobs and contributing to a vibrant local high street in a coastal village. The bakery is a good example of using community power to respond, create and deliver local solutions to economic challenges. We are looking to work with more co-operative across Scotland in the coming months.”

Co-op Loan Fund exists to empower co-operatives and the communities they serve by providing the accessible loan finance needed to breathe new life into local high streets. We want to see the economic benefits of a strong and healthy high street shared with employees, shoppers and the wider community rather than for private profit elsewhere.

Find out more about Dunbar Bakery’s plans by visiting their website.