Alan Clarke

Chief executive, Scottish Bakers

During my first month with Scottish Bakers, I have been on a major learning curve and have been really impressed with the pride that exists in the Scottish bakery sector.

There has been much written about words beginning with P, with the 4 Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion, which have been further developed to make 7 Ps by adding, People, Process and Physical Evidence and yet more recent research integrating e-commerce has grown this to 11 Ps with the addition of Privacy, Personal Interest, Personal (social) Networks and Public Commentary for example, product/service ratings, and so on.

In the current economic climate, bakers are having to re-examine their businesses through the eyes of their customers and, in the last month, I have been told several times that we know how to bake, but we need to focus on meeting customers’ needs.

To do this, there is one magic ingredient that we cannot buy off the shelf and that is the professionalism and personality of our people; that can be the real competitive advantage customers are looking for when choosing to do business with us.

This is exactly how I feel in my new role. In the months ahead we will listen to our members and identify how we can assist them to further develop their businesses. To meet their needs we will take pride in what we do, analyse our performance to determine where we can add value to the Scottish bakery sector and deliver high-quality services... with personality!