Company History
McPhies Craft Bakers is a traditional family bakery with over 33 years experience of producing a delectable array of freshly baked products. The business was started in 1973 by Jim M cPhie along with his wife June. It comprised of one small shop on Shettleston Road which sold a verity of items including a limited range of bakery products. On the strength of the high quality fermentation we moved onto larger premises still in the heart of Shettleston increasing a reputation for high quality traditional method bakery products still to be found today, our customers travel considerable distances to shop here at McPhies Craft Bakers.
Due to our traditional methods and high quality fresh bakery products, the business was invited to supply the new Hilton Hotel with all their morning goods introducing a wide and diverse range of speciality breads and Patisserie. The experience gained in this area has proved invaluable since there are no small bakers out there producing this type of product; the competition comes mainly from the large producers of frozen and bake-off products.
Craig joined the business in 1985 and is now a partner & Master Baker. Craig brings all the skill necessary to grow the business and is now central to future development plans. His IT skills and knowledge of the craft sector have been instrumental in developing McPhies into the business which we all know and love today.
Concentrating on excellence, MCB now boasts an extensive and expanding customer base that have a faithful following. Today, the bakery in the East End of Glasgow supplies hotels and restaurants in a concentrated area of Glasgow. This is no accident, but the result of achieving a careful balance between tradition and innovation, employing proven basic recipes without compromising on quality.
The work involved is highly labour intensive to produce substantial qualities, and we have earned a high reputation and integrity amongst our customers and our fellow bakers because we do not use the mass production techniques which are now common place in European bakeries.
The secret of MCB breads lie in the craft skills and know how along with carefully selected ingredients. Commercial pre-mixes are never used! Only the best Canadian and Patisserie flours, sun-dried Tomatoes, herbs and extra virgin olive oil and butter are used. Nothing else would be good enough to produce the wide range of brioche, ciabatta and Focaccia that our customers require.
McPhies are a well-established award-winning bakery winning 1 st Prizes with new product development competitions organised by Scottish Enterprise (previously Glasgow Development Agency) taking 1 st and 2 nd for three years running, as well as picking up the coveted Hygiene Award form the Glasgow City Council. We have also won First Runner up in the 2005 World Scotch Pie Championships, where over 300 bakers around the world put their best savoury products forward to be judged, an excellent feet for our small Glasgow Bakery, especially when you consider it was the first time we have entered this prestigious competition!