There’s company as in business. Company Bakery started making sourdough loaves in 2017, wholesales sourdough bread and pastries to over 200 businesses across Scotland, delivers to subscriber households in Edinburgh and now showcases them in its new café. Yet, according to founding director Ben Reade, ‘this is just the start. We’re still just working it out.’

There’s company as in association. While Reade might be the most recognisable director (with cheffy TV appearances and the now-closed Edinburgh Food Studio having been one of the most interesting local restaurants of the 2010s), he seems entirely comfortable with a lower profile. He’s clear that business leadership is equally shared with co-directors Hollie Love Reid (founder of Love Crumbs and Nice Times Bakery), and Amy and Duncan Findlater (Smith & Gertrude). ‘We’re four partners, with four different visions, but what’s important is where we come together, which is essentially making the best bread and running the best business,’ he says.

Then there’s the etymology of company. The word comes from the Latin prefix com (meaning with or together) and pane (bread). It’s gastronomy 101 that sharing bread is intertwined with good society, conviviality and being with others. In other words, the essence of Company is bread and people, and the café presents another opportunity to make the connection by bringing the public right into their sizeable production unit at Eskmills. This extensive, sometimes elegant, former Victorian rope and fishing net factory beside the River Esk has been revitalised with offices, 70 small businesses, a restaurant (Crolla’s Italian Kitchen) and function venue. Company’s discreetly located but bright canteen-style café showcases trays of elegant pastries and shelves of crusty loaves, with viewing windows down one wall offering glimpses of bakers rolling croissants by hand and placing pillows of naturally leavened dough into wicker proving baskets. 

The expanded premises means more bread, more people, more scale: bigger thinking. For the directors, it also offers more opportunity to make an impact on the food system; for instance, they’re now even closer to their main source of flour, Mungoswell Farm near Drem in East Lothian. The bakery employs over 55 people, many of them learning and activating valued artisanal skills. Their ovens are of a scale that they had to be built in situ, which allowed a rethinking on energy use, and Reade declares the business to be well on its way along a decarbonised, net-zero path. 

It’s all evidence that real bread is serious business these days; Company is in good, well, company. ‘The bread and baking scene in Edinburgh is off the charts,’ says Reade. ‘It’s so good. Think of the size and population of the city and the quality available. I’m really proud of that.

Company Bakery Café, 6 Station Road, Eskmills, Musselburgh.