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
It was in the later years of the ’Eighties that the first Glasgow
boycott took place, and it struggled on spasmodically for several years.
It had very little evil effect on the progress of the Co-operative
movement, but here and there it served to teach the members and
directors of societies a much-needed lesson as to the value of
Co-operative federal institutions. Particularly was this the case with
one society mentioned in the last chapter as receiving exceptional
conditions from private bakers. As a result of the boycott two out of
the three baking firms which had been supplying the society with bread
refused to do so any longer, with the result that the directors had to
appeal to the Federation to come to their rescue. This the directors of
the Federation were quite ready to do, and so the society joined the
Federation and had bread delivered to its members at a cost of 1/3 per
hour, instead of getting it delivered free and being relieved from
responsibility for bad debts, which were the terms given by the firms
which had failed it when the strain came. Another society which was
suffering through the application of the boycott by the bakers who
supplied it was High Blantyre, which also appealed for assistance, and
shortly afterwards became a member of the Federation. The membership of
the city societies was also growing very rapidly, and this growth was
being reflected in the sales of the Federation, which showed a
progressive increase every quarter. At the beginning of the 78th quarter
the number of societies affiliated was thirty-six; when the
coming-of-age celebrations took place two years later the membership had
increased to forty-two societies notwithstanding that Clippens and
Cessnock societies had ceased to exist.
A NEW PRESIDENT.
Another important change which took place at the end of 1889 was the
retiral from the presidency of Mr John Ferguson and the appointment of
Mr Duncan M‘Culloch in his place. This change marked the beginning of a
period of unexampled expansion in the growth of the Society. Just about
this time, also, the Federation was asked to supply Dumbarton Society
with bread while that society’s own bakery was being rebuilt. The
Federation at the end of this year was making a big bid for the trade of
the societies in cakes and buns for the New Year trade. They had
embarked on this trade on a small scale some time earlier, but the
business done for the season 1889–1890 was important enough to find a
place in the minutes as being 25 per cent. greater than that of the
previous year.
MAJORITY CELEBRATIONS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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