History of the United Co-operative Baking Society Ltd. : $b A fifty years' record 1869–1919Reid, William
History
History of the United Co-operative Baking Society Ltd. : $b A fifty years' record 1869–1919
Reid, William
United Co-operative Baking Society, Ltd., Glasgow
The camp was a very great success in the third year. Its popularity was
so great that the committee found it quite impossible to provide
accommodation for all who wished to avail themselves of its facilities
for holiday making, and this has been the case in each succeeding year,
notwithstanding the influence of the war. At the end of the third
season, however, the committee of the association came to the conclusion
that, if the camp was to be made the success they believed it was
capable of becoming, some rearrangement of its management would require
to be made, so they invited the Baking Society to take it over as a
going concern and work it themselves.
They explained to the directors of the Baking Society that they were not
taking this step because they disbelieved in its success, but solely on
the ground that they considered that dual control was not good for
discipline and did not make for good management.
The directors of the Baking Society promised to consider the matter, and
the result was they brought forward to the quarterly meeting, held in
March 1914, a recommendation that the camp should be taken over, and
this recommendation was accepted by the delegates. Since then the camp
has been managed by the U.C.B.S.
In 1914 accommodation was provided for 250 persons, and it is extremely
probable that greatly increased accommodation would have been provided
before now had it not been for the intervention of the war which, by
providing another and much more strenuous form of camping for the past
and prospective frequenters of Canada Hill, prevented for the time being
such further developments. Doubtless, however, with the return of Europe
to sanity, such developments will take place; until, before many years
are past, almost the whole of the Society’s seven-acre estate will be
covered in the summer and autumn months with the picturesque pyramids of
white canvas.
THE SOCIETY’S PROGRESS.
In all its branches, with the exception of the tearooms, the progress of
the Society during these four years had been remarkable. In 1913,
however, the London Street tearoom was closed, and as soon as the lease
of the Union Halls expired they also were given up. At the beginning of
the period the output had averaged 3,820 sacks per week, while at its
end the average output was 4,648, an increase of 848 sacks per week in
four years. The aggregate sales for the year which ended in July 1914
were £692,600. Truly, the Society had travelled far from the days when a
small two-oven bakehouse sufficed for all its output. The membership now
consisted of 201 societies; which was also a contrast to the eight small
struggling societies which had banded themselves together in the last
days of December 1868 to form the Federation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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