With 31 years and counting, there are few who know Border Biscuits like Elaine Bone. From school leaver to production manager, Elaine tracks the journey of a brand success story.
WHEN Elaine Bone left high school in the 1980s she wasn’t exactly sure what to do next. At the same time, a small Scottish biscuit company was looking to expand, offering entry level opportunities at its Lanark bakery.
Thirty one years later, Border Biscuits isn’t so small anymore, and Elaine Bone has risen through the ranks to her current role of production manager.
“When I left school I thought, ‘what am I going to do?’ I saw this opportunity to work in the bakery for four days and then spend one day working at the Glasgow College of Food Technology,” said Elaine.
“Within a year of starting I got given a permanent contract. I started out as a baker but I really always wanted to be a packer. I eventually moved onto packaging, where I learned all about packing the biscuits and from there I became supervisor before becoming production manager. So I’ve done a wee bit of everything in the company.”
Having experience across the Border Biscuits business is certainly useful to Elaine in her current role, with responsibilities that include planning what lines will be produced and keeping staff hours in line with demand, all while maintaining the kind of atmosphere that has kept her at the firm for three decades.
It’s a big job, as the Border Biscuits business of today is a long way away from the small operation Elaine started out at.
“In the factory at peak season there are about 200 staff,” said Elaine.
“We’re a big team at Border Biscuits, we operate more like a family than a collection of small groups. We help each other out.
“When I first started there were just eight of us in this small factory in Lanark.”
The scale of the Border Biscuits operation has expanded markedly over the years with milestone moments including the shift to its current site in 1996 and a further expansion in 2013.
Despite these major changes, the core of the Border Biscuits offer has remained unchanged according to Elaine.
“When I first started there were just eight of us in this small factory in Lanark.”
“Our recipes today are still the same as what they were when I first started. We were making four kinds of biscuits then, now it’s over 20 but it’s still the exact same methods,” she said.
Expansion hasn’t just allowed the firm to make more biscuits, Elaine said it’s also let Border Biscuits do more for the local community through an outreach programme that offers a lot more than lip-service to good causes.
At Border Biscuits, 10% of all profits are used to support local causes, a guiding principle that Elaine reckons makes working for the firm all the better.
“I think it’s fantastic that you know when you’re baking something or packaging something you’re also supporting the local community,” she said.
“Personally, I know if I go to an event and see that it’s been supported by Border Biscuits I’m proud to know we helped.”
Causes supported by Border Biscuits include social enterprise projects through the Lanark Community Development Trust and Clydesdale Community Initiatives, as well as Lanark Lanimer Week, a festival of fancy dress, pipe bands and tradition dating back centuries.
Border Biscuits doesn’t just step out into the community, Elaine said, it also invites the community in through its family days which are held at the factory during the summer months.
“At Border Biscuits we’ve got values and one of the things we do is a ‘bring your family to work’ week during the school summer holidays,” she said.
“Staff can bring their family in and they tour the factory, the kids get to see what their mums and dads and aunts and uncles are doing for a living.
“Usually they say ‘oh it’s just like baking biscuits at home’ but on a bigger scale.”
Community outreach isn’t the only thing Elaine is proud of when looking at her 31 years at Border Biscuits; the production manager said she was particularly pleased with changes made to the firm’s production schedule earlier this year, which allowed the factory to shift from a seven-day operating schedule to a five-day week.
Staff at Border Biscuits had further reason to celebrate shortly after the shift change when Border Biscuits picked up the Best Business award at the 2018 Scotland Food & Drink Awards.
Elaine and the team at Border Biscuits’ attitude to quality may go some way towards explaining why the firm was worthy of the recognition.
While ice cream parlours made hay during Scotland’s early summer heatwave, the unusually warm weather brought some challenges for Border Biscuits, which Elaine said forced the team to adapt their operation to maintain quality in the heat.
“The heatwave has been very challenging because we make chocolate biscuits, which is difficult in this weather.
“Our main goal here is quality, so in this weather we will not send out chocolate biscuits. We don’t want to risk poor quality because they’ve been sitting in a van in this heat.
“What we have done instead is where we would maybe produce chocolate biscuits all day we’re producing them in the morning when it is cooler.”
Commitment to quality is a key selling point for Border Biscuits, as can be seen through the brand’s marketing activity including the brand’s ‘Biscuitiers’ focused TV campaign. Andy Alston, communications officer at Border Biscuits reckons that’s something independent retailers can use to their advantage.
“I keep coming back to it, but we’re more like a big family than people who just come to their work. I think I’ll be here now until I retire. I love it here, it’s great. It’s my extended family.”
“I would say that for our independent retailers, Border Biscuits offers a premium biscuit at an accessible price point. Independent retailers are looking for the best products and the best price,” he said.
Andy added that independent retailers tapping into coffee to go might do well to stock up on the brand’s Café Bake range, comprising three of Border Biscuits’ most popular variants in a larger format.
Elaine also reckons the Café Bake range is a winner, although at least in part because it’s led to the firm producing bigger versions of her own favourite variant, Lemon Drizzle Melts.
And although Elaine is a confessed fan of the biscuits Border Biscuits produces, she said its the people that work at the factory that have kept her there for over three decades.
“I keep coming back to it, but we’re more like a big family than people who just come to their work. I think I’ll be here now until I retire. I love it here, it’s great. It’s my extended family,” she said.
