A FOUR YEARS’ RECORD.
Before closing this chapter it may be well if we take a look at what had been accomplished during the four years with which it deals. At the close of the twenty-fifth year the Society was baking 1,254 sacks per week, while the turnover for the 117th quarter was 32,987 sacks, or 2,537 sacks per week; so that, in four years and a quarter, the trade had more than doubled. The output of the biscuit factory had been doubled; the output of the oatcake department had been increased manyfold, and notwithstanding the fact that several societies which were taking all their bread from the Federation at the beginning of the period had started baking for themselves before its end, the output in the bread baking department had come within a few sacks per week of doubling. An addition to the bakery had been erected at a cost of £29,000; new stables and workshops were in course of erection and nearing completion; the purveying department and tearooms had been greatly extended; a branch had been opened in Leith, for which extended accommodation had already to be secured, and a footing for the productions of the Society had been found South of the Border. The Federation had stood the test of the most virulent attacks which all the malice of enemies could devise, and, like the whole movement, had emerged stronger than before; while last, but by no means least, an educational fund had been started and an educational committee established. These four years show a record of growth and expansion which was phenomenal, and completely dwarfed all that had been done before. It lay with the period which followed to show that, rapid though it was, there was nothing which was mushroomlike in this growth.
CHAPTER XII.
CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT.
PROPAGANDA IN IRELAND—MR M‘CULLOCH READS A PAPER—SEEKING TRADE IN ENGLAND—C.W.S. OBJECTIONS—THE SOCIETY AND ITS EMPLOYEES—A GENERAL MANAGER—THE TEAROOMS—THE DELIVERY QUESTION—GLASGOW EXHIBITION—IRISH VISITORS—EXTENSIONS—A PROVIDENT FUND DISCUSSED—STABLE INSPECTOR RESIGNS: POSITION ABOLISHED—IMPROVING FINANCIAL POSITION.
The development, which had been so marked a feature of the Society’s business ever since the removal from St James Street to M‘Neil Street, continued during the next four years, if not with such markedly rapid progress as during those which have just been reviewed, at least at a rate which must have proved eminently satisfactory to directors and shareholders alike. One of the results of the slight slackening down of the rate of growth was that the directors had more time to devote to the thorough reorganisation of the business and to bringing all the knowledge and experience which they had gained to bear on its extension. They were not unmindful of the need for extension and reorganisation at the bakery itself, and this work received a good deal of attention during the period, but they also kept in view the desirability of bringing in new trade from every quarter where it could be procured, and so we find strenuous efforts being made to develop connections in England and Ireland, as well as to widen the scope of their operations in Scotland.