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
Early in February 1890, when the new buildings were approaching
completion, it was decided that the opening of these for trade should
also be taken advantage of to celebrate the coming of age of the
Society, and somewhat elaborate provision was made to have a function
which would advertise the business of the Society. It was agreed that
five tickets should be sent to every society doing a trade of £250, ten
tickets to those societies whose trade was between £250 and £500, and
fifteen tickets to societies whose trade was over £500. At a later
meeting it was agreed that one bottle of beer be supplied to each guest
attending the celebration.
The celebration of the majority of the Society, combined as it was with
the opening of the new wing of the bakery premises, was a notable
demonstration of the progress of Co-operation. The opening ceremony was
on a grand scale, as in addition to the large number of delegates who
had been invited there were also present a number of visitors, including
some from England. Mr M‘Culloch presided, and the opening ceremony was
performed by Mr Glasse, secretary of the Society, declaring the premises
open in a brilliant speech in which he traced the history of the
Federation from its earliest days, and commented on the wonderful
progress it had made. The occasion, he said, was one of which the
Co-operators of the West of Scotland should be proud. They were met in
buildings which were magnificent, and which were a fine example of what
might be done by working men. He reminded his audience that only three
years had elapsed since they had met at the same place to open the
original buildings. At that time the committee did not think that an
extension would be required so soon; the only difficulty they had
anticipated being that of finding sufficient trade to keep the bakery
fully occupied. That difficulty was soon overcome, however, and the
trade had increased so rapidly that they were forced to proceed with the
buildings they were met to open that day. How necessary the new
buildings were he illustrated by pointing out that while M‘Neil Street
original bakery had been erected to do a trade of 700 sacks per week,
the quarter which would end on the 27th April would show, he
anticipated, an average output of 715 sacks per week. When they had
started in St James Street it took fourteen years to work up to their
full capacity of 400 sacks per week, but now they had increased their
trade by over 300 sacks a week in rather less than three years. He hoped
that the biscuit factory which they were opening that day would prove as
great a success as the bread baking factory had done, and that many
societies outside the Federation’s radius for bread would avail
themselves of its products. The United Co-operative Baking Society was
one of the grandest examples of Co-operation which they had in the
country, and it was fast becoming one of the largest producers of bread
in the West of Scotland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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