ONE of the real success stories in the local business community celebrated a major milestone on Thursday.

S&M Bayne launched their first baker’s shop in October 1954 and six decades later the Lochore company has 52 retail outlets in East Central Scotland.

The company’s managing director, Mr Stanley Bayne, is rightly proud of the way the family firm has developed since it started as a butchers in the 1920s, but warned that there is no time to stand still in the bakery trade.

It was in 1921 that Bayne’s started up as butchers and soon the business had eight shops and 18 travelling vans covering the local mining communites and also Stirling and Edinburgh.

But he recalled his father John had sensed the demand for meat pies at the pit canteens and decided to open the first baker’s shop in Lochore and establish the bakery, then opened a second shop in Rosyth. He told the Times, “The business is always changing with customers’ choices so important to us and it is something we have always kept a very close eye on.

“Also our staff are our greatest asset and when we needed to open the new bakery in the early 1990s we knew we needed to stay in Lochore and while there were all sorts of grants available for places such as Glenrothes, we stayed at home and our workforce has continued to provide the service which has proved a successful recipe allowing us to expand from two shops, to 25 in 1994, and now 52”.

But he stressed that there was always a need to to keep expanding to be competitive and there are plans to open a new shop in Edinburgh next month. “We have to ensure we are giving customers what they want and that is our aim,” said Stanley, who is pictured in the Lochore shop with the special birthday cake baked to mark the milestone with son John, who assists with the running of the successful company, and two of the shop assistants, Dot Bernard and Audrey Taylor.

The 60th birthday was celebrated in each of the company’s 52 outlets with customers taking part in a special raffle.