Edinburgh bakers to deliver fresh sourdough door-to-door like 'old school milkmen'

The award-winning company which originally began in Leith three years ago as a wholesaler, supplying bread to popular Edinburgh stores such as I J Mellis and The Refillery, had to completely rethink their bread-centric business when the pandemic struck and many of their buyers stopped operating.

In early April, Company Bakery, which specialises in sourdough, launched their first direct home delivery service across Edinburgh which is now a sizeable chunk of the business.

They are now opening up a ‘bread market’ every Saturday.

Ben Reade, chef and one of five owners of the Edinburgh-based firm, said: “When the first lockdown came along, we recognised that firstly our business had just jumped off a cliff so we had to adapt to survive and secondly there were so many people shielding and staying in their houses we also felt there was a moral imperative to work out how to get people bread."

Speaking about the reaction people have had to their service going online, Ben said: “It’s a real highlight to people’s day especially when they are in lockdown to have a nice smiley delivery driver come and give you a loaf of fresh bread.

"At lot of people have been eating our bread from their favourite cafe or bar but they actually have no idea where it comes from so it’s good to get out there and sell directly.

"We’ve built our route like an old school milkman and to have a presence in Edinburgh, serving the local community and bringing people the products they want is really great but we still need people’s help to tell their neighbours and spread the word so we can keep working.”

The team of around 15 local bread-makers are also preparing to set up shop to sell their baked goods every Saturday morning, beginning this weekend, at their Haymarket site on 5 Devon Place.

"We’ve never done this before but we’re excited to do it and to see people.” said Ben, "We’ve got a little yard so we are just going to pop a table outside and sell our bread directly from the yard.”

On offer will be a selection of breads baked on site and selling will start at around 9am and last until they sell out.

Company Bakery will also be putting in place social distancing measures to ensure the safety of their customers.

With their own stonemill on site, the company mills around a third of the flour they use which comes from growing projects from Fife.

"We take all our sourcing really seriously- taking everything right back to the grain,” added Ben.

At the last Royal Highland show, the infamous bread-makers won three gold awards, a bronze and a reserve champion.

The people of Edinburgh can sign up to a bread subscription on Company Bakery’s website on companybakery.com to enjoy fresh bread throughout the week.

A message from the Editor:Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.