Clever cookies as Edinburgh bakers find more success in the Borders

The company built a portfolio of seven bakeries in communities around the city but has now spread its wings, with the opening of an outlet in the prosperous Scottish Borders town of Melrose in November.

Ms Cuddeford said the connection to the Borders came after she relocated from Leith to Melrose in 2020 and got to know the area after her son began attending nursery in the town.

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She said building a business in a town like Melrose is different to operating in the city but is enjoying trading in an environment where there is a healthy collection of independent businesses. Trading has been good so far, with the business forming links with local people and businesses, and is likely to pick up even more as the tourism season gets into full swing.

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“It’s really nice, the reception has been great,” Ms Cuddeford told The Herald. “A lot of people that I have met in the Borders have moved back since the pandemic or they have come out from Edinburgh wanting a little bit more space with their kids. A lot of people are grateful to have more options.”

Ms Cuddeford and Ms Morgan both come from a background in fine art.

Twelve Triangles, which has a workforce of around 60 people, makes its products at a site in Leith, where it has a team of 15 bakers and a savoury kitchen. The site is running at full capacity, meaning that the business would be unable to open more outlets. But building a network of stores and cafes had not originally been the plan.

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“We didn’t plan to have this many sites,” Ms Cuddeford said. “The pandemic changed quite a lot for us as a business. A large proportion of our business used to be wholesale, which disappeared overnight.

“Then we opened an online store and we had so much communication with our customers. There were all these people ordering from us, whether it was daily or a couple of times a week. And because my business partner and I ran that online shop, we were talking to them all the time and seeing what they were ordering.

“We could see what products customers liked and what area they were in, so after that we decided to not continue with wholesale, but to open sites in those areas that we knew we had a customer base already.”

The stores differ in size and format, Ms Cuddeford explained. The outlet in Portobello is like a shop and does not have anywhere to sit, while Stockbridge is more like a café and does not retail.

“Each varies for the community it is in, and what seemed to be needed," she said. "Our Easter Road store was originally started as a big grocery store and has had a complete change. Now we have lots of seating in it and turning into a café, because again what people have wanted over the last couple of years has changed.”

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A major part of the Twelve Triangles philosophy is bake its products with ingredients sourced from local suppliers, such as growers, farmers, millers, and dairies. Asked if this has become more difficult amid the ongoing cost of doing business crisis, which in recent months has seen the price of energy, rent, and ingredients spiral, Ms Cuddeford said the biggest challenge is the time local sourcing takes.

“If you work with a large distributor, or you can just get all of your stock delivered daily, and you don’t need worry about finding individual suppliers [it is time consuming]," she said.

"Something we feel is really important is if you can have a direct link with that supplier, it means you can cut out the middleman. You can be giving them the most amount of money and support, whilst having the best produce that you can then use for your customers.

“Quite a few products are more expensive, but it is more the time in building those relationships.”

Ms Cuddeford went on: “Now, more than anything, we are pushing to work with our suppliers more and more than we were.

“With everything going on just now, and with all costs rising in every sector – energy, staffing, bills, food costs, the whole lot – I think it is more and more important to be accountable for where you spend your money. We have always had quite a high-value product because what goes into it is really high labour.”

Ms Cuddeford added that she feels a responsibility to look after its suppliers as well as its own staff, and is keen to ensure customers know that the money spent in Twelve Triangles is supporting independent local businesses.

“It is not disappearing abroad, it is not going to companies that do not pay their tax,” Ms Cuddeford said. “It is going to other businesses who also pay staff fairly and have good working conditions, as well as caring for the land by farming correctly.

“Now, more than ever, we are pushing on trying to find those direct relationships and find new suppliers.”

Meanwwhile, Ms Cuddeford said while the market for hiring staff has begun to ease and the company is finding it straightforward to find front-of-house staff, Brexit has made a “huge difference” when it comes to recruiting kitchen and bakery employees.

“We used to work with an exchange programme over in France and we would take people and they would come and train for eight months, and we used to do that every year,” she said. “We have lost things like that which is really sad because they lose the teaching, but you also lose learning what their products are like and how they do things and having those other connections. We are certainly finding that our staffing is becoming a little bit less diverse than it previously was.”

Q&A

What countries have you most enjoyed travelling to, for business or leisure, and why?

Sri Lanka. I went there a few years ago whilst travelling and I was overwhelmed by the incredible food, smells, and flavours all around me. 

 When you were a child, what was your ideal job? Why did it appeal?

When I was really small, I wanted to be an opera singer, I think maybe because I had seen phantom of the opera. 

What was your biggest break in business?  

Meeting my business partner Rachel, she allowed me a huge amount of creative freedom and supported me with whatever I wanted to try 

What was your worst moment in business? 

The moment lockdown was announced and trying to run through every scenario of how to keep people safe as well as keeping the business going. 

Who do you most admire and why? 

My mum because she has never given up. 

What book are you reading and what music are you listening to?

I love music from the 60s and 70s. I'm listening to a lot of Roy Orbison just now. Apart from being surrounded by cookbooks, I'm chicken boy my life with hens’ by Arthur Parkinson.