Annie's Bakery and Reids of Caithness win seal of approval from customers at Scottish Bakers awards
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Two Caithness businesses – Annie's Bakery Ltd and Reids of Caithness – have risen to success in the Scottish Baker of the Year awards 2022/23.
In the customer choice awards, Annie's Bakery, Canisbay, won the title Bakery Café of the Year, while Reids was a finalist in the Wholesale Baker of the Year. The customer choice section, covered the whole of Scotland, so it was a great result for the local companies.
Reids also won the gold award for best in Scotland in the biscuit category with the bakery's caramel filled shortbread, as well as getting two national bronze awards – one for the buttery entry and the other for corn bread.
Gary Reid, who attended the presentation with colleagues said: "We were just overjoyed. To win the best biscuit in Scotland is fantastic, specially when we are primarily a biscuit bakery. We were successful with every product, and they all went through to the Saturday night, which was good."
He was also very pleased that customers had voted for them in the wholesale bakery award.
Gary wished he had entered the Baker of the Year category, which Reids of Caithness won in 2017, but felt it was perhaps too soon to go for the top accolade again and had decided to focus on the business side of things instead.
He added: "Well done to The Three Little Bakers of Inverness in winning their first ever Baker of the Year title."
The awards were presented during a glittering gala dinner at the Scottish Bakers annual conference held in the Hilton Hotel Glasgow at the weekend.
Each category was judged at a regional level first with products awarded bronze, silver and gold. There are three regions – Highlands, Islands and Grampian, Central Belt and Tayside and Borders and Lowlands.
On the Friday night Reid's caramel filled shortbread was crowned the gold winner of the region, which included bakeries as far afield as Orkney and Stornaway, as well as a host of businesses in the Aberdeen area. The winning shortbread is now going to be put in the company's gift range.
Gary was accompanied to the event by his head baker Lauren Mackenzie, technical and quality assurance manager Kevin Cormack and Sarah Meiklejohn, from administration.
Unfortunately Annie Body, of Annie's Bakery, Canisbay, was unable to go and pick up her award in person due to the café side of the business being so busy.
"We are thrilled to win this award and would like to thank all of our customers who voted for us," said Annie. "It really shows that they like our products and café."
The café is a fairly recent addition to the business and has only been operating for a couple of years. An indoor seating area had only just been set up when Covid struck so a marquee was opened up instead which has proved very popular.
On the business Facebook page Annie said she was proud to be named as one of the best in Scotland’s baking industry, adding: "Not bad for a wee café up a single track road in the middle of nowhere."
Last December Annie's Bakery received a rural Covid resilience accolade from the Scottish Highlands and Islands Rural Economy (SHIREs) Awards.
