INCREASING TRADE.
It was not long before the manager was again reporting to the committee that the premises at M‘Neil Street were being congested, and intimating that they would require to consider the building of additional ovens at Clydebank or else the opening of a branch in the east. The result was that four additional ovens were built on a plan devised by the engineer and foreman baker, and called the “Scott-Richard” oven. By the 140th quarter the branch was in full working order, and the number of sacks baked that quarter was 2,502. The output of the branch continued to increase, and by the 148th quarter had risen to an average of 352 sacks per week. So rapidly had the sales of the branch grown that less than eighteen months after it was opened the directors found it necessary to add other three ovens, bringing the total up to fifteen. These also were of the Scott-Richard type.
By the beginning of 1906 the congestion at Clydebank and at M‘Neil Street had become so great that it was decided to proceed with the completion of the Clydebank premises at a cost of £10,000. This extension provided for the erection of sixteen new ovens, thus practically completing the productive capacity of the building. The extension was completed in June 1907, and the June quarterly meeting was held in one of the flats there. Amongst other innovations introduced during the completion of this extension was a large water-storage tank of capacity sufficient to provide a day’s supply of water in event of any breakdown in the public water supply. Provision was also made for electric power and light, and two electric lifts were installed.
At the meeting the chairman, Mr D. H. Gerrard, said the branch was up to date in every respect, and could be characterised as a modern bakery in every sense of these words, equipped with the latest and most improved means of production. It was an institution of which they need not be ashamed—indeed, he would say rather it was an institution of which they might be justifiably proud that they were the owners. They were exhorted in the Old Book that they should forget the things that were behind and press onward to the things that were before. In a general sense that advice was pretty good, especially when looking back might have a depressing effect on one’s spirits; but it might be helpful to take a retrospect of the past and look for a short time on the day of small things: the days of their weakness, and ponder over them. After paying a tribute to the work done for the Baking Society by Mr M‘Culloch, Mr Gerrard went on to suggest that the United Baking Society was one of the wonders of modern times, and was an eloquent testimony to the shrewdness and business qualifications of the working men who had managed it during the thirty-eight years of its existence. Referring to the branch, he stated that it had now capacity for a trade of 1,400 sacks per week, and pointed out that since Clydebank bakery was commenced, in 1902, the trade of the Society had increased by nearly 1,500 sacks per week.