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| In 1931, during the depression, a young craftsman baker with entrepreneurial aspirations named Donald Bell started a business baking scones in his mother’s washhouse.
It wasn’t long before his father David, a winding engine man in the local coalmines, built premises in which to expand his son’s thriving trade and Donald’s two sisters and four brothers joined the company, making it a family affair. |
| In the 1950s, Donald had the idea of producing what is now one of Bell’s most reputed products – scotch puff pastry. This product proved exceedingly popular with housewives of the time, and its sales in independent butchers in central Scotland spurred an expansion in both premises and product range, which by this point included many wholesale bakery items.
After further modernisation in the 1970s, Bells firmly established themselves as a major supplier to supermarkets and convenience stores whilst sustaining their long standing relationship with the independent trade. In 1975, the range was expanded once more with the acquisition of the Kirriemuir Gingerbread Company thus including cake products in Bell’s portfolio. |
| Development continued in 1992, when the construction of “Hawthorn Bakery” was completed. This purpose built, EFSIS approved site now operates simultaneously with David Bell’s original “Dykehead Bakery”. While cake production continues at Dykehead, the majority of savoury lines were moved to this state-of–the-art factory in which there is constant re-investment, in order to remain at the forefront of the industry.
Today, this family firm employs around 200 staff, every one of whom is instrumental in the continued success of Bells Food Group. And, indeed, it must be said that the company has come a long, long way from its humble beginnings in a cramped outdoor washhouse! |
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