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May 25, 2010

Dunbar kneads to raise dough

Bread is one of life‘s staples. Good quality, old fashioned, freshly baked bread.  Not so long ago every high street would have at least one local bakery but with the advent of supermarkets and mass produced bread wrapped in plastic, the local bakery has become something of a rarity. But for some folk, the presence of a bakery is not just about the bread – it’s more a symbol of their community’s wellbeing.  When the last independent bakery in Dunbar closed down two years ago, the community felt they had to act

Sandy Brydon, Berwickshire News

THE delicious smell of freshly baked bread will soon be attracting customers to a home bakery in Dunbar High Street. Dunbar Community Bakery has secured a property where it plans to start baking high quality bread within a few months.

Chairperson Jane Wood said the co-operative had negotiated an agreement in principle to lease a shop on Dunbar High Street and convert it into a working bakery.  “We aim to set up a sustainable business that will help to revive Dunbar High Street and provide a new source of local employment”

She announced the deal to over 50 shareholders at the Annual General Meeting of Dunbar Community

Bakery at the Rossborough Hotel in Dunbar last Thursday.

“This is a real breakthrough and represents tremendous progress,” Ms Wood said.

“If all goes well and we receive planning permission for the installation of a food production unit, we should be up and running before Christmas. She announced the deal to over 50 shareholders at the Annual General Meeting of Dunbar Community Bakery at the Rossborough Hotel in Dunbar last Thursday.

“This is a real breakthrough and represents tremendous progress,” Ms Wood said.

“If all goes well and we receive planning permission for the installation of a food production unit, we should be up and running before Christmas
Ms Wood is a Dunbar resident and retail expert. She is chief executive of Scottish Business in the Community, an organisation which promotes corporate social responsibility.

She expressed caution that the details of the long lease were still being negotiated and that the project remained subject to planning permission from East Lothian Council.

Dunbar’s last home bakery closed down two years ago when its owners retired.

Ms Wood told the AGM, that Dunbar Community Bakery had raised more than £23,000 in equity from over 230 shareholders since it was formed on June 4, 2009, to bring locally baked fresh bread back to the High Street.

The community enterprise had also received promises of £35,000 in interest-free loans and had identified the potential to raise tens of thousands of pounds more in grants and loans, she said.

“We aim to set up a sustainable business that will help to revive Dunbar High Street and provide a new source of local employment,” Ms Wood said.

“We will employ six people initially and the business should break-even within three years.”

http://www.dunbarcommunitybakery.org.uk/