A community bakery in Scotland, Fife, is fired up to support social entrepreneurs by sharing its business secrets. 

The Doorstop Bakery, Fife, has been recognised by Scottish development agency, Firstport, for its first-class business model, which it now hopes to pass on to other businesses.

Neil Stoddart, Doorstep Bakery manager, said: “We have four years of development experience to share with others and if this helps one more community to create and grow a viable social enterprise, then it will be worth it. We would like to think that folk will be of the attitude, if they can do it, so can we.”

The bakery has worked together with Firstport to pinpoint key factors which makes the bakery such a success. These have been merged into the ‘Ditto manual’ for other social entrepreneurs, so they can push their own businesses to reach the same success.

Karen McGregor, chief executive of Firstport, said: “A community bakery is a fantastic addition to the Ditto bank of business ideas. Consumers want different products that have a story and that are produced in a local and responsible way. We expect this to be a popular model and look forward to supporting a new wave of social entrepreneurs and artisan bakers.”

The Ditto concept, launched in 2013, uses key principles from the private sector to apply to localised businesses and enterprises. 

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