ONE of Glasgow's oldest and best known family bakers and tearooms is to close after almost 90 years with the loss of more than 100 jobs.
Miss Cranston's Tearooms, the company which owns 13 branches of Bradfords Bakers, has gone out of business with liquidators called in.
A number of employees were asked not to work last night's shift and were instead asked to apply for redundancy. Workers at the company, which has traded since 1924, will attend a crisis meeting with directors this morning.
A spokeswoman for the company said: "After almost 90 years, it is with great sadness that Miss Cranston's Tearooms, the Retail branches of Bradfords have now closed and a liquidator, Grainger Corporate has been appointed as of 12th July.
"We would like to thank all of our customers and employees for their loyal support over the years. It has been a pleasure to serve the Glasgow public through our branches, but we regret that due to the impact of increasing costs and adverse trading conditions we were unable to continue despite our best efforts following action from creditors.
"In keeping with our desire to provide the best possible service to customers, we will be contacting all those who have placed an order with us so that we may either fulfil the order, or provide a refund."
The news concludes a turbulent financial spell for Bradfords, which survived a threat of closure in 2011. That summer the firm had one week to pull the company back from liquidation after HM Revenue and Customs lodged a petition at Paisley Sheriff Court.
HR Bradford (Bakers) Ltd then issued a notice following the move by the taxman, who called for the business to be wound down and a liquidator appointed.
That followed the last serving at one of their best-known branches, Miss Cranston's Tearooms, in the city's Gordon Street.
Bradfords was founded by Hugh Bradford and his sons and is now run by his granddaughter-in-law Helen Bradford and great-granddaughter Claire
In 1998, it launched Miss Cranston's Tearooms, a once-famous Glasgow brand originally founded in 1878 by Kate Cranston.
Bradfords' flagship store in Sauchiehall Street is the UK's largest artisan bakers shop, which moved into the former department store, Sir Hugh Fraser's.
One worker, who asked not to be named, said: "It is a shame in some ways. You can blame the recession but on the other hand Greggs is booming. Bradfords has been dying a death for years. It comes as no surprise."
Meanwhile, one of the largest private employers in the Highlands is to shed 40 jobs at its Inverness base.
Lifescan Scotland, part of the Johnson & Johnson-multi-national group, employs about 1,100 people to make medical equipment used by diabetics.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article