Stag Bakeries is a a family business that has been an integral part of Scotland’s beautiful Hebridean landscape since 1885. In a competitive market where mass production continues to be the dominant force, Stag Bakeries offers its growing number of discerning customers something less ordinary. Their state of the art artisan bakery in Stornoway uses traditional methods and only the finest ingredients - add a healthy measure of creativity and you have a range of award-winning products for every occasion.
Daniel from Stag completed our six questions, to give us an insight into what motivates and inspires the team.
1.How/why and when did you start your business?
Our business has a heritage going back to 1885 and started out as a traditional bakery supplying bread, rolls and a wide variety of other daily goods to the people of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. In those days there were a number of local bakeries on the island, each one with a different speciality, and as the years have gone on, we still keep our tried and tested recipes close to our heart.
2. What advice would you give to someone starting a new business in the sector?
Understand well what makes your company different and go from there. The sector is hugely competitive, so it is vitally important that customers make a connection with your offering and your brand, and that connection is made through high quality products, distinctive packaging and an authentic brand story that they can trust.
3. What motivates you?
Our mission is to try our best to make sure that every one of our customers are satisfied by the quality of our products on a daily basis. To make sure we aren’t standing still we are constantly on the lookout to improve the way we do things, from the baking side all the way to getting orders delivered to mainland Scotland and beyond. We are also aware that our brand represents our location in the Outer Hebrides and we want to make that connection a positive one as we believe where we’re from influences the kinds of products we make.
4. How do you think the food & drinks industry could improve?
From our point of view, we think it’s important that consumers have as wide and diverse a selection of products and producers to choose from as possible, and to that end we feel that the food & drink industry is in a good place as exciting new brands are starting out all over Scotland. We do love independent farm shops and delis and would like to see more of them.
5. Is there an individual or organisation, current or in the past, who inspires you?
We take inspiration from many different sources. There are a number of speciality food and drink companies in our local community in the Western Isles that have taken the big step of supplying customers across the UK and abroad and their success has given us the belief that we can follow in their footsteps. We also look outside our industry to seek out ways that we can improve our products and the way we interact with customers as things are moving so quickly with technology and the capabilities available at our fingertips.
6. Apart from Greencity, which other three or more people, living or deceased, would you invite to make a dinner party entertaining?
That's a tricky one! I’d have to say Stag’s owner Charlie first and foremost and with him being big on his music he’d probably want Frank Sinatra and Andrea Bocelli there too!
If you’d like any more information about Stag Bakeries, you can check out their website at stagbakeries.co.uk or contact the Greencity Sales Team who are always happy to help.
