CRAWFORDS, one of the oldest names in Scottish business, yesterday became the biggest casualty in the bread wars that are being fought out with the supermarkets and other retail outlets.
The company was established in 1899 and went on to become a Scottish institution with its chain of tearooms.
It lost its independence but fought back successfully to regain it in July 1990, when Andrew Frew led the management buy-out from United Biscuits, Britain's biggest bakers.
Its victory was announced on the eve of the royal garden party season at Holyroodhouse where the company has by tradition been the caterer for which it enjoys the royal warrant.
The new company proudly readopted its historic name, DS Crawford, and looked set to rise to any challenge with 1300 staff and two bakeries, 111 retail shops and nine restaurants.
From its headquarters in Elbe Street in Leith, the company supplied much of the Scottish market.
Management was optimistic. Mr Frew said: ``We know the business well and will be able to take complete charge of what is a medium-sized Scottish business.''
He said the company intended initially to develop the existing business and build market share. He also revealed plans for a new type of food retailing operation.
However, storm clouds were gathering. A rival firm warned that without some form of discount control the bread industry faced collapse.
The warning was sounded by Mr Robert Lightbody whose family has been in the bakery business in Lanarkshire for more than a century.
He said: ``The multiples are the parasites of the bread industry and are bleeding it dry.'' Prices less than half the recommended retail price were suicidal for the whole industry, he said. ``This impossible situation is facing independent bakers everywhere.
``The time has now arrived when there's going to be a lot of suffering in this industry. We've reached rock bottom. Things can only go up or it will break altogether.''
Yesterday, it was Crawfords which broke.
It did not, however, snap easily. Six months ago the company ``refocused'' its organisation when Mr Frew retired as chairman and managing director. His job of chairman was taken by Edward Pickard, the former finance director at Invergordon Distillers Group. Mr Paul Sales, finance director at Crawfords since 1990, was appointed managing director.
The Royal Bank of Scotland refinanced Crawford's debt and acquired an interest in the company's equity.
Mr Sales said the undisclosed refinancing had provided funds to improve lighting and make other image changes at Crawfords shops.
Last night as the night shift turned up for work at the bakery in Leith the improved lighting was flickering and no more.
q Crawfords has not been the only casualty in the bread wars. Two years ago Tunnock, the family-owned biscuit manufacturers based in Uddingston, announced the closure of its bakery division with the loss of 108 jobs.
Mr Boyd Tunnock said the bakery division had been running at a loss for some time and this trend had been exacerbated by the growth in the number of in-store supermarket bakeries operating seven days a week.
q In 1989, 350 jobs were lost in Glasgow when specialist bakers Adam Fleck closed. Flecks was bought in 1985 by Northern Foods which invested #3.5m at its bakery in Drumchapel but failed to turn the supplier of crusty bread and morning rolls to Scottish retailers into profit.
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